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SOCIAL  WORK 


THE  SOCIAL  WELFARE  LIBRARY 

Edited  by  Edward  T.  Devine,  Ph.D.,  L.L.D. 

A  series  of  volumes  for  the  general  reader  and  the 
social  worker,  designed  to  contribute  to  the  under- 
standing of  social  problems,  and  to  stimulate  critical 
and  constructive  thinking  about  social  work. 

1 .  Social  Work  :  by  Edward  T.  Devine. 

2.  The  Story  of  Social  Work  in  America:  by 

Lilian  Brandt.      In  preparation. 

3.  Community  Organization:  by  Joseph  Kinmont 

Hart.     Price,  $2.50  net.  - 

4.  Industry  and  Human  Welfare  :  by  William  L. 

Chenery. 

5.  Treatment  of  the  Offender  :  by  Winthrop  D. 

Lane.     In  preparation. 


Social  Welfare  Library 


SOCIAL  WORK 


BY 


EDWARD  T.  DEVINE 


5Jm  fork 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

X/i  r«gA/j  reserved 


1)5GG3 


PRINTED  IN  THE  U^^TED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


COPTBIGHT,  1922, 

Br  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  January,  1922 


FERRIS  Pri'NTING  COM^A^fy 
NEW  YORK 


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PREFACE 


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ri 


This  book  is  intended  for  use  in  the  class-room  and 


J         for  the  general  reader.     It  contains  no  sort  of  direct 


or  indirect  propaganda.  Some  subjects  are  so  tech- 
nical and  so  intricate  that  the  author  must  deliberately 
choose  whether  he  will  address  himself  to  the  specialist 
or  to  the  general  reader.     In  spite  of  the  difficulties 

j^  encountered  by  those  who  study  and  by  those  v/ho 
engage  in  social  work,  this  is  not  true  of  the  subject 
with  which  this  text-book  deals.    For  this  reason  non- 

N  technical,  general  terms  are  preferred,  when  there  is 

a  choice,  to  those  which  belong  to  the  jargon  of  a 
small  professional  group.  At  the  same  time  the  dis- 
cussion sometimes  oversteps  the  boundaries  of  the 
zones  of  agreement,  and  on  controversial  questions 
no  attempt  is  made  to  conceal  the  author's  personal 
views. 

Social  work  is  the  serious  vocation  of  a  considerable 
number  of  men  and  women,  and  an  avocation  of  a 
larger  nujnber  who  make  their  living  otherwise  but 
are  desirous  of  doing  what  they  can  by  the  way  to 
lessen  poverty,  ignorance,  disease,  and  crime;  to  make 
the  lives  of  their  less  privileged  neighbors  happier  and 
more  satisfying;  to  secure  justice  for  individuals  who 


vi  Preface 

suffer  from  injustice  and  hardship;  to  advance  the 
new  social  order  which  some  visuahze  as  a  decent 
place  for  human  beings  to  live  in,  and  some  call  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  aim  of  this  volume,  and  of  the  series  in  v/hich 
it  appears,  is  to  make  clearer  the  relation  between 
every-day,  sometimes  discouraging  efforts  to  help 
others  and  those  larger  social  movements  in  industry, 
education,  and  other  departments  of  life  and  thought 
to  which  they  are  essentially  related.  There  is  inspira- 
tion for  the  familiar,  manageable,  even  if  difficult  task 
in  the  idea  that  its  full  meaning  is  to  be  found  in  the 
national  or  world  struggle  to  manage  also,  in  one  way 
or  another,  the  less  familiar,  more  difficult  human  task 
of  which  it  is  a  local  and  typical  instance. 

For  twenty  years  or  more  I  had  the  privilege  of 
serving  as  executive  officer  of  the  New  York  Charity 
Organization  Society.  For  a  dozen  years  or  more  of 
this  time  I  had  also  the  privilege  of  giving  instruc- 
tion in  Social  Economy  in  Columbia  University  and 
serving  as  a  member  of  the  teaching  and  administra- 
tive staff  in  the  New  York  School  of  Philanthropy. 
On  three  occasions,  for  periods  amounting  to  nearly 
two  years,  I  was  in  Red  Cross  emergency  service.  I 
am  free  to  draw  upon  these  experiences,  but  have  no 
actual  or  implied  obligation  to  be  the  advocate  of  any 
policy,  the  spokesman  of  any  cause,  the  enemy  of  any 
proposal,  the  representative  of  any  movement.  I  am 
wholly  untrammelled  by  any  conscious  limitations  im- 


Preface  vii 

posed  by  past  or  prospective  institutional  connections. 
This  freedom  leads  inevitably  to  a  certain  revaluation 
of  values.  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  an  academic 
connection  or  service  as  executive  of  a  social  agency 
necessarily  restricts  freedom  of  speech  or  action.  Free- 
dom does  not  consist  merely  in  the  absence  of  limita- 
tions— which  may  be  only  the  result  of  indifference  of 
the  public — but  in  the  possession  of  opportunities,  and 
in  this  respect  an  executive  or  teaching  position  may 
confer  a  sense  of  freedom  greater  than  an  unattached 
individual  can  easily  attain.  This  certainly  has  been 
my  own  experience.  Nevertheless  there  is  some  satis- 
faction, and  there  may  be  perhaps  some  advantage  to 
students  and  the  public,  in  an  attempt  to  look  at  charity 
and  correction,  at  social  work,  public  and  voluntary, 
from  a  detached  point  of  view;  with  sympathy  and 
understanding,  but  with  a  more  critical  and  more  inclu- 
sive vision. 

E.  T.  D. 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE      V 

PART  I:     INTRODUCTORY 

CHAPTER   I.       PROGRESS   AND    SOCIAL    WORK 

Needs;   Institutions;   Problems;   Forces 1 

Care  of  Individuals :   Improvement  of   Condi- 
tions .  .  . 2 

Slavery;  Serfage;  Guilds;  Household  Industry  4 

Era  of  Individual  Responsibility   6 

Individualism  in  America   7 

General  Prosperity:  Persistence  of  Misery.  ...  8 

— The  Function  of  Social  Work 10 

Discredited  Objections 12 

CHAPTER  II.       THE  SCOPE  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

Original   Components   of   what   is   now   called 

Social  Work 15 

Significance  of  the  Term    17 

Unifying  Element:  The  Common  Social  Prob- 
lems    19 

Poverty,  Disease,  and  Crime 20 

Meaning  of  Social  Work 21 

Making  a  Living  not  Social  Work 23 

Universal  Social  Institutions    24 

Common  Services  of  Government   24 

ix 


X  Contents 

Mutual  Associations 26 

Fluidity  and  Experimental  Character 27 

CHAPTER  III.       CHARACTER  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIAL  WORK 

American  Economic  Ideals 32 

Religious  Ideals 33 

Social    Ideals    35 

Political  Ideals   37 

Distinguishing  Characteristics 38 

Tendency  to  Integration  42 

CHAPTER   IV.      THE   STANDARD   OF   LIFE 

New  Meaning  of  the  Right  to  Life 45 

New  Interest  in  the  Standard  of  Living 47 

What  is  a  Reasonable  Standard? 49 

Findings  of  the  New  York  Committee 51 

Definition  of  the  Standard  of  Living 54 

The  Prevailing  American  Standard 57 

Influence  of  a  High  Standard 61 

CHAPTER   V,       CLASSIFICATIONS   OF   SOCIAL   WORK 

According  to  Auspices 62 

According  to  "Process"    66 

Other  Classifications    68 

According  to  the  Social  Problem 69 

Relief  of  Dependence   70 

Care  of  the  Sick,  Disabled,  and  Defective.  .  .  73 

Treatment  of  Criminals 74 

Improvement  of  Living  and  Working  Con- 
ditions     75 


Contents  xi 
PART   II:     POVERTY 

CHAPTER   VI.       FAMILIES 

Normal  Function  of  the  Family 79 

When  the  Family  Fails 81 

Institution  or  Home  Service 82 

Agencies  for  Home  Service 84 

Insufficient  Income 85 

Health:     Physical  and  Mental  Examination.  .  .  89 

Varied  and  Complicated  Tasks    91 

Volunteer  Service 92 

Material   Relief    93 

Relief  in  Disasters    95 

Extension  of  Home  Service    96 

CHAPTER   VII.       DEPENDENT   ADULTS 

The  Almshouse    99 

Private  Homes  for  the  Aged 104 

Old  Age  Dependence    106 

Temporary   Shelter    108 

CHAPTER    VIII.       CHILDREN 

Natural  Dependence Ill 

Primary  Responsibility  on  the  Family   112 

Rights  of  Childhood   114 

Protection  and  Placing-Out    115 

Illegitimacy   118 

Homes  for  Children    119 

Child  Welfare  Allowances 123 

Day  Nurseries    127 

Fresh  Air  Agencies 12^ 


xii  Contents 

PART  III :     DISEASE  AND  DISABILITY 

CHAPTER  IX.       THE  SICK 

Individuality  Must  Be  Respected 132 

A  Positive  Health  Ideal  133 

The  Hospital   . . ., 135 

Maintenance  of  Hospitals    138 

Public  and  Private  Hospitals   139 

Public  Support  of  Private  Hospitals 141 

Value  of  the  Modern  Hospital 143 

Home  Care  of  the  Sick 146 

Treatment  for  All 147 

CHAPTER    X.       THE   HANDICAPPED 

Physical  Handicaps   150 

Needs  of  the  Blind 151 

Prevention  of  Blindness   152 

The  Deaf   154 

The  Crippled 155 

Provision  for  Blind  and  Crippled 155 

Pensions    158 

Re-education  and  Economic  Rehabilitation.  . .  162 

The  Mentally  Handicapped 164 

The  Mentally  Defective 165 

Insanity 167 

PART  IV:    CRIME 

CHAPTER   XI.       CRIME  AND  THE   COURTS 

The  Law- Abiding  Spirit 170 

The  Law-Breaking  Spirit   171 


Contents  xiii 

The  Criminal  Courts 175 

Respect  for  the  Courts   175 

Bad.Efifects  of  the  War 178 

Special  Position  of  Courts  in  America 180 

Specialization  of  Courts    181 

The  "Female  Offender" 183 

CHAPTER    XII.       TREATMENT    OF    CRIMINALS 

An  Ideal  Plan  for  the  Treatment  of  Convicted 

Offenders 186 

Reactionary  Tendencies  of  the  Moment 187 

Early   Education    188 

The  Need  for  Just  Laws,  Intelligently  Admin- 
istered      189 

Treatment  of  Offenders  by  Warning 190 

Probation    191 

Fines    193 

Denial  of  Privileges  as  Penalties 195 

Payment  of  Prisoners 196 

Prisons :     A  Confession  of  Failure 196 

The  County  Jail 197 

Penitentiary  and  State  Prison   201 

The   Goal:     Elimination   of   the  Fundamental 

Idea  of  the  Prison 202 

PART  V:     IMPROVEMENT  OF  CONDITIONS 

CHAPTER    XIII.       IMPROVEMENT    OF    CONDITIONS :  I 

Preventive  Case-Work 205 

The  Temperance  Movement   206 


xiv  Contents 

Housing    209 

Loans :     Pawn-Broking  and  Its  Kin 212 

The  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis 216 

Infant  Mortality 219 

Health  of  Mothers  and  Infants 222 

Prevention  of  Venereal  Disease 223 

Cancer  and-  Heart  Disease 225 

Public  Health :    The  Health  Center 227 

CHAPTER  XIV.       IMPROVEMENT  OF  CONDITIONS:  II 

Social  Settlements    230 

Institutional  Churches   231 

Foundations    232 

Welfare  Departments 232 

Recreation 233 

Racial  and  Social  Groups 236 

jWorking  Conditions 237 

Child  Labor   238 

Minimum  Wage  Laws 240 

Standards  for  Women  in  Industry 240 

Compensation  Standards 241 

Industry  and  Social  Work   242 

Other  Causes  and  Problems   244 

Common  Features  of  the  Educational  Move- 
ments    245 


PART  VI :     GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

CHAPTER   XV.       COORDINATION   AND   SUPERVISION 

The  Social  Service  Exchange 250 


Contents 


XV 


Societies  for  Organizing  Charity 251 

Community  Conscience  and  Civic  Memory. . .  254 

Surveys   256 

Councils  and  Federations  of  Social  Agencies.  .  257 

Current  Confusion  and  Duplication 258 

Conferences    261 

Official    Boards    263 

CHAPTER   XVI.       finances:    I 

Governmental  Social  Work 266 

The  Lower  Levels  of  Tax-Paying  Ability. . . .  268 

Enough  for  All  Necessary  Work 269 

Defects  of  American  Local  Politics 272 

Subsidies :      Partnerships   between   Public  and 

Private  Agencies 273 

Endowments   275 

CHAPTER  XVII.       finances:  II 

Earnings    281 

Paying  Occupations  in  Institutions 283 

Current  Contributions   286 

Discrimination  in  Giving 287 

Publicity    288 

Drives   289 

Financial  Federation 292 

Better  Financial  Methods  and  Policies 296 

chapter  xviii.     preparation  for  social  work 

General  and'  Technical  Qualifications 298 

College  Training  and  General  Preparation ....  299 


xvi  Contents 

College  Teaching  of  the  Fundamentals  of  Social 

Work     301 

Relation  to  its  Basic  Sciences 302 

Increase  in  Teaching  Material 304 

Courses  in  Social  Work 304 

Historical   Backgrounds    306 

Graduate  Professional  Training 309 

CHAPTER  XIX.       THE  FUTURE  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

Freedom  of  Individual  Initiative:     Its  Results  315 
Extension  of  Home  Service :     Through'  Socie- 
ties for  Family  Welfare 317 

Through  the  Churches 319 

The  Unique  Function  of  Religion 319 

Social  Work  and  the  State 322 

Expansion  of  State  Activity 324 

The  Principle  that  the  State  Should  Bear  the 

Burden    325 

The  Religious  Problem 327 

Present  Tendencies 330 

The  American  Ideal 330 

INDEX    335 


SOCIAL  WORK 


SOCIAL    WORK 

CHAPTER    I 

PROGRESS  AND  SOCIAL  WORK 


Social  economics  may  be  described  as  community 
housekeeping.  Social  work,  to  follow  the  analogy,  is 
its  salvage  and  repair  service. 

needs;  institutions;  problems;  forces 

Social  economics  deals  with  social  needs  and  with 
the  institutions  through  which  they  are  met :  with  the 
need  for  education,  for  example,  and  the  schools ;  with 
the  need  for  justice  and  the  courts ;  with  the  need  of 
children  for  parental  care  and  the  family.  Smoothly 
organized  households  may  seem  to  the  stranger  to 
present  no  problems  of  household  management.  So 
prosperous  and  well  managed  communities  may  ap- 
pear deficient  in  social  problems.  The  social  economist, 
theoretically,  would  deal  equally  with  the  normal  opera- 
tions of  social  forces  working  advantageously  and 
equitably  and  with  the  pathological  conditions  which 
are  evidence  of  friction  or  failure. 

Public  and  private  agencies  for  the  promotion  of 
the  common  welfare  alike  fall  within  his  scope.  When 
the  mechanism  of  government  adequately  and  economi- 

1 


2  Social  Work 

cally  fulfills  its  function,  the  social  economist  would 
have  to  concern  himself  with  it  only  as  an  instrument 
in  accomplishing  some  definite  result.  When  govern- 
ment is  out  of  gear  or  misused  for  som.e  partisan 
and  anti-social  purpose,  so  that  a  conscious  effort 
becomes  necessary  to  restore  it  to  its  proper  uses  or 
to  increase  its  efficiency,  a  problem  in  social  economics 
as  well  as  in  the  science  of  politics  is  presented.  The 
reform  of  the  criminal  law  and  of  criminal  procedure, 
for  example,  is  of  interest  to  lawyers,  to  criminologists, 
and  to  social  economists,  each  of  whom  has  a  point 
of  view  different  from  that  of  the  others,  but  all  of 
whom  must  unite  to  secure  the  evidence  and  perfect 
the  plans  by  which  the  reform  is  to  be  secured. 

Seeking  first  to  understand  social  conditions  and  to 
become  able  to  distinguish  between  such  as  are  favor- 
able to  social  welfare  and  progress  and  such  as,  on  the 
contrary,  are  socially  destructive,  the  social  economist 
does  not  rest  content  with  this  analysis,  but  attempts 
to  estimate  also  the  social  forces  operating  in  the 
community,  his  purpose  being  to  furnish  the  informa- 
tion, the  principles  and  the  methods,  which  will  enable 
socially  minded,  public  spirited  citizens  to  work  effec- 
tively with  others  of  similar  aim. 

CARE  OF  individuals:  improvement  of  conditions 

If  from  the  broader  term  social  economics  we  now 
turn  to  the  narrower  and  more  familiar  expression 
social  work,  and  if  we  think  of  the  practical  social 


Progress  and  Social  Work  3 

worker  rather  than  the  academic  social  ecoiioniisty  we 
may  at  once  hmit  the  scope  of  our  study  to  those 
aspects  of  community  housekeeping  which  have  to  do 
with  getting  rid  of  bad  conditions  or  helping  people 
who  cannot  help  themselves.  The  broad  object  of  social 
economics  is  that  each  individual  shall  be  able  to  live 
a  normal  life  according  to  the  standard  of  the  period 
and  of  the  community.  The  narrower  object  of  social 
work  is  (1)  the  care  of  those  who  through  misfortune 
or  fault  are  not  able  under  existing  conditions  to  realize 
a  normal  life  for  themselves  or  who  hinder  others  from 
realizing  it — dependent  children,  aged  poor,  sick,  crip- 
ples, blind,  mentally  defective,  criminals,  insane,  negli- 
gent parents,  and  so  on — and  (2)  the  improvement 
of  conditions  which  are  a  menace  to  individual  welfare, 
which  tend  to  increase  the  number  of  dependents 
and  interfere  with  the  progress  and  best  interests  of 
others  who  may  be  in  no  danger  of  becoming  de- 
pendent. 

Social  work  may  be  individual,  spontaneous,  un- 
organized, or  it  may  be  associated,  deliberate,  and 
organized.  It  may  be  carried  on  by  the  government 
or  by  a  voluntary  society.  It  may  be  the  outgrowth  of 
some  older  institution  which  exists  primarily  for  some 
other  function.  It  may  be  inspired  by  the  altruistic 
or  humanitarian  motive;  it  may  represent  a  responsi- 
bility accepted  by  the  people  in  their  corporate  capacity 
and  detailed  to  public  officials;  it  may  reflect  rising 
standards  of  taste  with  reference  to  what  it  is  decent 


4  Social  Work 

to  allow  in  a  civilized  society,  and  rising  standards  of 
what  constitutes  justice.  It  includes  everything  which 
society  does  for  the  benefit  of  individuals  because  they 
cannot  do  it  for  themselves  or  because  they  have  not 
yet  seen  the  importance  of  doing  it  for  themselves, 
from  whatever  motive  it  may  be  done,  by  whatever 
agency  or  whatever  means. 

slavery;  serfage;  guilds;  household  industry 

In  modern  industrial  Europe  and  America  individual 
well-being  is  assumed  to  depend  upon  individual  effort, 
thrift,  and  foresight.  This  assumption  and  the  facts 
upon  which  it  rests  are  comparatively  new  in  the  world. 
Under  the  primitive  conditions  of  savage  life,  it  fre- 
quently happens  that  an  entire  tribe  may  be  reduced 
to  want  merely  by  the  niggardliness  of  nature.  Slavery 
and  serfage  had  many  hardships,  but  they  had  the 
advantage  over  savagery  that  they  produced  the  neces- 
sities of  life  more  uniformly  and  that  they  contained 
obvious  safeguards  against  extreme  neglect  of  the  in- 
dividual. The  slave  and  the  serf  as  property  have  a 
value  which  the  master's  self-interest  conserves.  There 
may  be  cruelty,  but  at  least  the  slave  must  be  kept 
alive  and  able  bodied  if  the  owner  is  to  derive  benefit 
from  the  relation.  The  serf  belongs  to  the  master,  but, 
as  the  Russian  serfs  were  accustomed  to  say,  the  land 
belongs  to  those  who  cultivate  it  and  live  on  it.  The 
feudal  manor  gave  a  definite  status  to  the  most  menial 
worker,   and   the   merchant   and   craft   guilds   of   the 


Progress  and  Social  Work  5 

thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  gave  an  equally 
definite  although  a  different  security.  Prices  as  well 
as  wages  were  determined  by  well  established  customs. 
Sickness,  old  age,  and  misfortune  were  not  the  night- 
mares of  our  own  time  for  the  marginal  workers,  be- 
cause the  craft  unions  were  in  effect  a  sort  of  social 
insurance  against  their  financial  burdens. 

This  is  not  to  take  a  sentimental  or  romantic  view 
of  life  under  the  guild  system.  Death  rates  were 
higher,  the  average  expectation  of  life  shorter,  epi- 
demics more  deadly ;  but  the  experiences  of  unprovided 
old  age  or  chronic  illness,  of  being  cast  aside  without 
income  or  occupation  because  younger  workers  are 
preferred,  are  peculiar  to  an  age  of  unlimited  individual- 
responsibility.  Medieval  industry  had  many  restric- 
tions which  modern  economics  condemns,  but  it  gave 
a  certain  protection  and  security  to  the  worker  and 
his  family  which  the  modern  wageworker  lacks.  The 
household  industries  of  a  later  period — just  preceding 
the  industrial  revolution — retained  something  of  that 
security,  but  most  of  it  had  disappeared  by  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  and  the  industrial  revolution  during  the 
fifty  years  after  1776  completed  the  process.  The  new 
power  machines,  the  growth  of  factory  towns,  the 
substitution  of  free  contract  for  status,  the  rise  of 
free  trade,  free  competition,  and  the  division  of  labor, 
revolutionized  the  whole  process  of  wealth  production, 
liberating  the  manufacturer  and  the  worker  from  old 
restrictions,  but  with  results  which  optimistic  advocates 


6  Social  Work 

of  liberty  did  not  foresee  and  which  statesmen  did  not 
guard  against. 

ERA   OF  INDIVIDUAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

In  this  new  world  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  and 
the  twentieth  century  individuals  are  theoretically  free 
to  follow  what  occupations  they  choose,  to  work  or 
not  to  work  as  they  please,  to  change  employment  at 
will,  to  sell  their  labor  in  the  dearest  market,  to  buy 
the  commodities  which  they  require  in  the  cheapest 
markets  they  can  find,  to  move  from  a  place 
where  they  are  not  needed  to  another  where  they 
may  find  work,  to  educate  their  children  without  arbi- 
trary limit  and  to  prepare  them  for  any  occupation 
for  which  they  may  seem  to  be  fitted,  to  combine  in 
unions  for  collective  bargaining,  to  insure  their  lives 
and  their  health  either  in  mutual  funds  or  in  commer- 
cial companies.  Women  also  gain  the  right  to  work 
wherever  they  like,  overcoming  in  the  process  both 
legal  obstacles  and  the  mxore  stubborn  barrier  of  preju- 
dice and  custom.  When  humane  legislation  seeks  to 
prohibit  women  from  working  at  night  or  for  long 
hours  or  at  physiologically  injurious  occupations,  em- 
ployers come  forv/ard  ready  to  fight  such  restrictions 
on  the  ground  of  the  sacred  right  of  all  to  make  what- 
ever labor  contracts  they  believe  to  be  to  their  interest. 
/Thus  we  have  arrived  at  a  stage  of  extreme  individual- 
ism, unrestricted  competition,  the  widest  possible  appli- 
cation of  the  principle  of  the  harmony  of  economic  in- 


Progress  and  Social  Work  7 

terests,  i.  e.,  that  when  each  individual  does  that  which 
is  for  his  own  best  interest  it  automatically  results  that 
he  is  doing  what  is  also  for  the  best  interests  of 
society. 

INDIVIDUALISM    IN    AMERICA 

In  the  United  States  the  general  conditions,  both  in 
colonial  times  and  in  the  century  and  a  half  of  our 
national  history,  have  been  exceptionally  favorable  for 
the  application  of  these  modern  ideas.  Our  physical 
resources  have  been  practically  unlimited.  The  con- 
tinent invited  occupation.  Transportation  has  become 
progressively  easier  and  cheaper.  Elementary  educa- 
tion is  well-nigh  universal.  Industry  has  been  con- 
stantly expanding.  The  demand  for  labor  has  been 
insatiable.  The  standard  of  living  has  been  high. 
There  has  been  no  social  caste  to  prevent  the  rise  of 
efficient  individuals.  There  have  been  favoritism  and 
graft,  but  no  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  ambitious  and 
determined  individual.  A  national  democracy  of  man- 
ners and  an  open  market  for  ability  have  constantly 
raised  men  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  station. 
There  have  been  temporary  economic  classes,  but  no 
settled  proletariat  or  aristocracy. 

It  is  true  that  all  these  possibilities  for  the  individual 
are  limited  and  relative.  The  occupation  of  the  parent 
influences  that  of  the  child  even  when  there  is  no  legal 
obstacle  to  change.  The  circumstances  of  the  family 
determine   largely   his   opportunities   and   advantages. 


8  Social  Work 

The  worker  cannot  escape  the  thousand  influences 
around  him  which  shape  his  decisions  as  to  where  he 
shall  work  and  how  long  and  how  hard  and  in  what 
temper.  All  that  we  can  say  is  that  he  has  a  far  greater 
range  of  freedom  than  in  earlier  times  or  in  other 
lands  or  under  other  economic  systems, 

GENERAL  PROSPERITY  :  PERSISTENCE  OF  MISERY 

What  now  have  been  the  results  of  this  extraordi- 
narily favorable  constitution  of  society  in  an  exception- 
ally favorable  environment?  Has  it  resulted  in  the 
disappearance  of  poverty,  in  the  sense  of  insufficiency  of 
income;  in  a  notable  absence  of  individuals  who  suffer 
from  personal  afflictions  such  as  insanity,  mental  de- 
fect, blindness,  crippling  organic  disease ;  in  the  lessen- 
ing of  the  number  of  anti-social,  criminal,  or  unadjusted 
individuals,  or  in  the  number  of  orphans,  abandoned 
infants,  or  neglected  or  ill-treated  children  who  must 
look  to  society  to  repair  the  failure  of  their  natural 
parents  ?  These  questions  cannot  be  answered  affirma- 
tively. There  has  been  immense  progress,  but  poverty, 
disease,  crime,  misfortune,  have  not  disappeared.  The 
general  level  of  living  has  been  high,  but  far  below 
this  level — comparable  to  the  least  fortunate  of  those 
who  lived  in  slavery,  serfage,  feudalism,  guildism,  or 
a  system  of  small  household  industries — there  have 
been  human  wrecks,  tragic  failures,  misery  unspeakable. 
No  doubt  this  misery  seems  the  greater  because  of  the 
generally  higher  level  of  prosperity  which  is  its  back- 


Progress  and  Social  Work  9 

ground.  No  doubt  even  the  poor  of  to-day  have  some 
comforts  and  conveniences  which  the  cultivated  Athen- 
ian or  the  thirteenth  century  craftsman  did  not  enjoy. 
Men  are  not  thrown  into  jail  for  debt  or  branded  for 
vagrancy.  Children  are  not  deliberately  exposed  as  in 
the  ancient  world.  Many  of  those  who  now  live  to 
sufifer  from  some  physical  infirmity  would  earlier  have 
died  of  neglect.  Much  modern  restlessness  is  due  to 
wants  of  which  our  ancestors  were  innocent. 

Nevertheless  the  fact  remains,  speaking  affirma- 
tively and  not  comparatively,  that  many  families  of  our 
time  do  find  themselves  without  enough  to  eat,  with 
no  fuel  even  when  it  is  severely  cold,  with  no  decent 
raiment,  without  shelter  or  furniture,  with  no  substitute 
for  earning  capacity  when  this  fails,  with  no  insurance 
against  the  financial  disasters  resulting  from  unem- 
ployment, insufficient  earnings,  sickness,  or  old  age. 
Some  of  those  who  suffer  this  extreme  poverty — this 
economic  insufficiency — are  of  vicious  habits.  They 
may  easily  be  convicted  of  having  called  their  troubles 
on  themselves  by  criminal  acts ;  by  strong  drink  or  other 
indulgences;  by  laziness,  foolish  speculation,  or  sheer 
improvidence.  But  others  are  quite  as  far  down  whose 
lives  have  been  virtuous  and  who  cannot  be  charged 
with  any  serious  faults.  Saints  as  well  as  sinners  may 
be  improvident  and  inefficient.  Poverty,  in  spite  of 
much  scepticism  on  the  subject,  creates  no  presumption 
of  vice;  even  though,  on  the  other  hand,  it  no  longer 
creates  in  our  minds  a  presumption  of  superior  virtue. 


10  Social  IVork 

The  poor  are  of  all  kinds :  wise  and  simple ;  good  and 
evil;  temperate  and  intemperate,  Christian  and  heathen, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  white  and  black,  individualist  and 
socialist.  Not,  of  course,  in  equal  numbers.  Statistics 
would  show,  no  doubt,  a  larger  proportion  of  mental  de- 
fectives, drug  addicts,  ignorant  and  shiftless,  a  smaller 
proportion  of  sound  minds  and  bodies  and  temperate 
lives,  among  the  "poor"  than  among  self-supporting 
industrial,  clerical,  or  profesional  workers. 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

That  poverty  and  its  kindred  misfortunes  persist 
in  the  midst  of  progress  has  been  presented  as  an  indict- 
ment of  the  social  system  under  which  progress  is 
made.  Progress  Ufts  the  general  level  of  life;  it 
results  in  a  happier  and  better  life  for  the  mass  of  man- 
kind; but  the  tragic  failures  cannot  be  philosophically 
accepted  as  inevitable  incidents.  Those  who  suffer 
vicariously  from  changes  which  are  of  general  advan- 
tage must  be  rescued  and  incorporated  in  the  advance 
movement,  if  the  social  system  is  to  be  succesfully 
defended.  If  social  work  can  be  made  to  function  suc- 
cessfully as  the  means  by  which  those  who  are  unequal 
to  the  strain  of  free  competition,  to  the  complex 
demands  of  an  industrial  system  intended  for  vigorous, 
intelligent,  and  alert  workers,  are  enabled  to  find  a 
sheltered  place,  a  safe  and  congenial  sanctuary,  then 
it  may  redeem  the  industrial  system,  not  by  excusing, 
but  by  eliminating  its  injustices. 


Progress  and  Social  Work  11 

The  modern  industrial  system  is  on  trial  before  the 
bar  of  the  world's  aroused  and  critical  public  opinion. 
Communism  is  openly  challenging  it  to  mortal  combat. 
Socialism  in  every  country  is  seeking  to  gain  control  of 
the  government  in  order  to  end  capitalism  by  peaceful 
revolution.  Guildism  and  syndicalism  are  trying  to 
substitute  a  vocational  for  a  territorial  organization 
of  society,  securing  to  productive  workers  in  each  craft 
and  profession  the  control  w^hich  now  rests  with  the 
owners  or  representatives  of  invested  capital.  The 
conservative  elements,  taking  alarm,  are  seeking  to 
identify  patriotism  with  capitalism;  loyalty  to  the 
existing  form  of  government  with  loyalty  to  the  exist- 
ing economic  system. 

This  system,  under  which  land,  railways,  banks,  and 
industries,  as  well  as  consumption  goods,  are  held 
as  private  property  and  exploited  primarily  for  private 
profit,  under  which  wage  earners  are  employed  by  the 
owners  of  capital  and  are  expected  to  have  no  further 
interest  in  their  employment  than  to  give  a  fair  equi- 
valent for  their  wages,  may  or  may  not  survive  the 
present  attacks  upon  it.  That  does  not  here  concern  us. 
What  we  have  to  do  is  to  appraise  the  means  by  which, 
in  such  a  system  of  free  competition  and  contract, 
private  property  and  capital,  employment  for  wages 
without  social  insurance,  society  undertakes  to  provide 
for  the  relief  of  distress  and  the  rehabilitation  of 
those  who  fail.  Men  may  differ  as  to  whether  the  fact 
of  poverty  constitutes  an  indictment  of  any  society  in 


12  Social  Work 

which  it  persists,  but  there  can  be  no  question  that 
neglected  poverty,  unreHeved  misery,  increasing  dis- 
tress, are  such  an  indictment.     Social  work  must  not  be 

/  content  to  make  gestures,  to  demonstrate  remarkable 
results  in  selected  instances.  What  it  has  to  do,  if  it 
is  to  have  a  fundamental  relation  to  social  progress,  is 
to  bring  it  about  that  life,  health,  and  character  shall 
not  be  destroyed  by  insufficient  income,  that  the  forces 

\     of  exploitation  and  greed  shall  be  controlled. 

DISCREDITED    OBJECTIONS 

There  is  a  certain  type  of  evolutionary  doctrine  which 
has  held  that  to  care  for  the  sick  and  weak  and  de- 
fective and  unfortunate  is  to  retard  progress  by  inter- 
fering with  the  beneficial  progress  of  natural  selection. 
A  naive  kind  of  biology  assumes  that  it  is  within  the 
power  of  society  to  keep  the  unfit  alive  but  not  to  make 
them  fit,  and  that  fitness  in  the  technical  sense  is  iden- 
tical with  what  is  inherently  worthy  and  desirable. 
But  small-pox  slays  a  Jonathan  Edwards  and  typhoid 
a  Wilbur  Wright  quite  as  readily  as  they  slay  a  wife- 
beater  or  a  moron.  The  same  policy  which  prevents 
the  exposure  of  a  deformed  infant  prompts  the  oper- 
ation by  which  the  deformity  is  cured.  Much  useful 
work  is  done  by  neurasthenics.  It  is  good  social  policy 
to  utilize  the  services  of  those  who,  like  Charles  Darwin 
or  Alexander  Stephens,  are  easily  fatigued. 

This  discredited  biology  has  been  reinforced  by  an 
equally  false  political  economy,  which  has  taught  that 


•y 


Progress  and  Social  Work  13 

any  interference  by  society  with  the  freedom  of 
contract  is  unwarranted.  If  children  want  to  work 
or  their  parents  want  them  to  work,  and  employers  want 
to  hire  them,  then  there  is  nothing  further  to  be  said. 
If  men  want  to  work  on  dangerous  machines,  and  the 
owners  of  the  machines  want  them  to  do  so,  then  out- 
siders must  not  interfere.  If  employers  want  to  pay 
less  than  a  living  wage,  and  workers  want  to  take  it, 
then  the  starvation  wage  has  a  natural  right  to  survive.) 
The  assumption  is  that  economic  self  interest  is  a 
sufficient  protection  to  the  individual,  and  that  any  inter- 
ference with  the  operation  of  this  principle  is  pernicious. 
This  assumption  has  been  carried  into  the  field  of 
charitable  assistance.  The  poor,  like  others,  must  look 
out  for  themselves.  When  at  work  they  must  save  for 
old  age  and  illness  and  for  any  period  of  unemployment. 
If  they  do  not  earn  enough  to  live  on  they  must  work 
harder  or  go  without.  The  beneficent  principle  of 
self  interest  is  in  danger  of  being  thwarted  if  the  pros- 
perous give  aid  to  the  unfortunate.  Those  who  are 
without  employment  or  visible  means  of  support  are 
vagrants  to  be  punished,  not  unfortunate  persons  to 
be  helped.  Even  when  a  home  in  the  work-house  or 
poor  relief  is  provided,  the  conditions  under  which 
relief  is  given  must  be  made  "less  eligible"  (i.  e.,  more 
severe)  than  those  which  are  attained  by  the  lowest- 
paid,  most  sweated,  independent  workers.  It  was  held, 
long  after  this  general  theory  of  economics  had  been 
discredited  by  a  sounder  analysis  and  shot  to  pieces 


14  Social  Work 

by  indignant  outbursts  of  human  sympathy,  that  there 
is  something  pecuHarly  dangerous  about  rehef  funds; 
that  they  tempt  to  idleness  and  improvidence ;  that  they 
dry  up  the  natural  springs  of  benevolence;  that  they 
are  a  constant  temptation  to  pauperism.  There  is 
some  danger  of  this  kind  in  carelessly  administered 
relief  funds,  especially  if  they  are  widely  advertised; 
but  it  may  be  greatly  reduced,  even  eliminated  entirely. 
Furthermore,  it  is  now  easy  to  see  that  a  lack  of  the 
material  essentials  to  a  normal  standard  of  living  is  in 
itself  one  of  the  most  productive  sources  of  the  pauper 
spirit,  and  that  there  are  other  positively  destructive 
forces — such  as  epidemic  diseases,  tuberculosis,  malaria, 
hook-worm ;  over-work  and  over-crowding ;  child  labor 
and  industrial  accidents ;  gross  inequalities  and  injustice 
in  the  distribution  of  the  products  of  industry — which 
are  far  more  serious  than  lavish  giving  as  causes  of 
human  misery. 


CHAPTER    II 
THE  SCOPE  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 


Although  social  work  itself  is  as  old  as  human 
society,  the  term  has  come  into  use  only  in  this  twentieth 
century.  Before  1900  there  was  "philanthropy"  and 
"charity"  and  "social  reform" ;  there  were  almshouses, 
orphan  asylums,  homes  for  the  aged,  charitable  socie- 
ties for  many  purposes;  there  were  prisons  and  reform- 
atories; there  were  hospitals  and  insane  asylums  and 
dispensaries;  there  were  social  settlements  and  missions; 
but  there  was  no  collective  term  in  current  use  to 
designate  them. 

ORIGINAL     COMPONENTS     OF     WHAT     IS     NOW     CALLED 

SOCIAL  WORK 

There  was  little  appreciation  of  the  place  which  these 
various  related  activities  occupy  in  the  general  economic 
constitution  of  modern  western  society.  They  were 
not  ordinarily  thought  of  at  that  time  as  component 
parts  of  a  system.  They  had  originated  at  different 
periods  and  in  different  ways,  and  the  people  engaged 
in  them  were  more  conscious  of  their  affiliations  with 
the  churches,  or  with  the  state  or  local  government, 

15 


16  Social' Work 

or  with  the  medical  profession,  or  with  sociologists 
and  political  scientists,  than  with  one  another.  They 
had  been  coming  together  in  a  national  conference  once 
a  year,  to  be  sure,  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  years,  under 
the  double-headed  title  of  "charities  and  corrections"; 
and  this,  though  a  little  awkward,  had  been  accurate 
enough  until  the  settlement  movement  and  the  consu- 
mers' leagues  in  the  90' s  brought  in  a  group  who,  while 
recognizing  the  interests  they  had  in  common  with  those 
who  were  engaged  in  charity  and  correction,  protested 
against  identifying  themselves  with  either.  When  in 
the  first  years  of  the  twentieth  century  still  another 
kind  of  undertaking  came  into  existence — committees 
and  associations  for  securing  better  housing  and  more 
playgrounds,  for  the  prevention  of  tuberculosis  and 
of  child-labor — based  primarily  on  an  interest  in  raising 
the  lower  level  of  social  conditions  rather  than  in  taking 
care  of  the  poor  and  the  sick  and  the  criminal,  the  need 
for  an  inclusive  term  became  imperative,  and  "social 
Vwork"  was  the  result.  It  is  difficult  to  say  just  when 
and  how  the  name  originated,  but  speakers  began  to 
refer  to  the  members  of  the  National  Conference  as 
"social  workers,"  and  to  the  interests  represented  in 
the  conference  as  "social  work,"  and  by  1904  or  1905 
the  term  was  in  general  use,*  though  the  name  of  the 
Conference  was  not  changed  until  1916. 


*  The  oldest  of  the  training  schools — the  one  in  New  York, 
dating  from  1898 — kept  its  title  "School  of  Philanthropy" 
until  1919;  while  the  Boston  school,  organized  in  1904,  was 
called  from   the   beginning   "School   for   Social   Workers." 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  17 

SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    TERM 

It  is  not  altogether  satisfactory  as  a  name,  because 
both  the  words  composing  it  have  so  wide  a  significance 
that  logically  it  would  include  every  human  activity 
carried  on  in  association.  On  the  other  hand,  its  very 
hospitality  is  a  practical  advantage  during  this  period 
when  new  varieties  of  enterprise  in  this  field  are 
rapidly  developing.  It  is  at  least  preferable  to  the 
clumsy  "social  welfare  work,"  and  to  "social  service," 
since  the  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon  "work"  carries  no  sug- 
gestion of  the  class  distinctions  associated  with  "ser-i 
vice";  to  "uplift  work,"  which  is  even  more  obviously 
pbjectionable  for  the  same  reason,  and  which  is  used 
chiefly  with  a  shade  of  mild  contempt,  by  those  who  do 
not  take  it  very  seriously.  At  any  rate,  "social  work" 
seems  now  to  be  firmly  established  in  current  usage. 

There  is  not  yet,  however,  an  accepted  definition  of  it, 
and  the  term  is  used,  even  among  those  who  call  them- 
selves "social  workers,"  with  a  wide  range  of  content. 
Some  extend  its  significance  to  include  all  the  activities 
of  schools  and  churches  and  of  any  other  organizations 
within  their  purview  which  they  regard  as  contributing 
to  the  general  welfare.  Some  limit  it  to  work 
that  is  done  by  voluntary  organizations,  supported  by 
voluntary  contributions,  excluding  identical  activities 
carried  on  by  public  officials  and  supported  by  taxation. 
Some  regard  a  salary  as  the  distinguishing  mark  of  a 
social  worker,  and  will  say  of  a  man  who  has  been  in-   • 


18  Social  Work 

fluential  In  shaping  social  legislation  and  determining 
the  policies  of  many  social  agencies,  "But  he  is  not  a 
social  worker;  he  never  held  a  paid  position."  A 
psychiatrist  may  be  heard  to  say  of  a  relief  society, 
"But  of  course  that  is  not  social  work."  It  is  not  un- 
common, especially  among  the  younger  social  workers, 
to  hear  "social  work"  punctiliously  reserved  for  what 
they  consider  to  be  "preventive"  or  "educational"  or 
"constructive,"  or  for  the  latest  developments  of  which 
they  happen  to  know.  Persuading  a  family  to  adopt 
a  budget,  getting  a  child  weighed  and  measured  or  a 
girl  "psycho-analyzed,"  is  social  work  in  their  eyes, 
but  providing  a  home  for  an  old  woman  on  the  county 
farm  is  not;  hospitals  and  dispensaries  are  not  social 
work,  but  "hospital  social  service"  is;  courts  and  re- 
formatories are  not,  but  the  work  of  a  probation  officer 
in  a  juvenile  court  is;  "mental  hygiene"  and  "after- 
care" of  the  insane  are  entitled  to  the  name,  but  not 
the  care  of  the  same  individuals  while  they  are  in  an 
institution.  Others  still  are  willing  to  recognize  as 
social  work  only  what  is  done  according  to  the  most 
approved  methods  with  which  they  happen  to  be  fam- 
iliar. An  officer  of  the  American  Red  Cross,  for  exam- 
ple, was  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  when  Red  Cross 
Home  Service  was  inaugurated  there  was  "only  one  so- 
cial worker"  in  his  state,  meaning  by  this  that  there  was 
only  one  person  who  fully  understood  and  habitually 
applied  the  principles  of  "case-work."  There  is  no 
agreement,  naturally,  even  among  those  who  wish  to 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  19 

limit  the  use  of  the  term  in  these  ways,  as  to  what  is 
worthy  to  be  included  and  what  must  be  excluded,  for 
their  decisions  are  determined  perforce  by  their  indi- 
vidual knowledge  and  standards. 

THE  UNIFYING  ELEMENT  :  THE  COMMON  SOCIAL 

PROBLEMS 

If  this  perplexing  combination  of  two  simple  words 
remains  in  currency  as  a  term  of  special  significance, 
it  wi-11  gradually  acquire  a  more  definite  content.  For 
the  present,  those  who  use  it  are  under  special  obligation 
to  explain  in  what  sense  they  accept  it,  doing  whatever 
they  can  to  establish  the  meaning  which  they  think  it 
should  have.  In  this  book  it  is  used  to  denote  the  whole 
complicated  net-work  of  activities  which  center  around 
the  social  problems  of  poverty,  disease,  crime,  and  other 
socially  abnormal  conditions.  The  unifying  element 
in  social  work  lies  in  these  common  social  problems  with 
which  it  is  concerned,  rather  than  in  a  common  method 
or  motive. 

"Social  problem"  is  another  term  in  every-day  use 
which  has  come  to  have  a  special  sense  hardly  justified 
by  the  literal  meaning  of  its  component  parts.  Any 
question  of  common  interest  to  the  members  of  society 
— Who  shall  be  president  ?  What  kind  of  school  teachers 
shall  we  have?  How  may  production  be  increased? 
How  may  industrial  unrest  be  allayed?  Where  is  the 
milk  supply  of  the  cities  to  come  from?  etc.,  etc. — is 
a  social  problem,  in  the  literal  sense  of  those  words. 


20  Social  Work 

But  the  combination  has  acquired  a  more  restricted  con- 
notation, and  in  this  restricted  sense  it  is  used  to  mean 
some  troublesome  condition  or  difficulty,  of  such 
a  nature  and  of  such  an  extent  as  to  affect  appreciably 
the  common  welfare,  which  cannot  be  handled  by  the 
individuals  immediately  concerned  or  by  the  social  and 
economic  and  political  institutions  which  serve  the  gen- 
eral needs  of  the  average  member  of  society. 

POVERTY,  DISEASE,  AND  CRIME 

The  elementary  social  problems,  in  this  sense,  are 
poverty,  disease,  and  crime.  They  emerge  as  social 
problems  in  the  earliest  stages  of  human  society.  From 
the  beginning  there  are  children  and  feeble  old  men  and 
women  without  natural  protectors ;  there  are  individuals 
who  require  special  personal  care  because  of  illness  or 
mental  deficiencies;  there  are  individuals  who  cannot 
keep  up  with  the  group — cannot  "earn  their  living" — 
because  of  physical  or  mental  weakness ;  and  there  are 
individuals  who  for  one  reason  or  for  another  do  not 
keep  the  rules  of  the  group.  These  individuals  who  can- 
not or  will  not  contribute  their  share  to  the  common 
life,  and  who  need  some  special  provision  not  afforded 
by  the  family  or  by  the  economic  and  political  system 
in  operation,  constitute  the  elmentary  social  problems 
in  every  community. 

From  the  earliest  stages  of  organized  human  society, 
also,  there  is  more  or  less  definite  recognition  that  they 
are   social    problems — that   people   cannot   be   allowed 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  21 

to  suffer  and  die  and  indulge  their  anti-social  tendencies, 
without  injury  to  the  common  interest — and  there  are 
corresponding  efforts  to  do  something  about  them. 
In  other  words,  the  germs  of  social  work,  in  the  sense  in 
which  we  are  using  that  term,  are  historically  as  ancient 
as  the  elementary  social  problems.  But  in  modern 
society  this  dim  recognition,  these  embryonic  germs, 
become  an  essential  and  permanent  function  of  social 
well-being  and  progress. 

At  a  much  later  stage,  people  begin  to  realize  that  the 
situation  of  these  individuals  requiring  special  provision 
is  due  in  large  part  to  certain  conditions  arising  out  of 
the  unrestrained  operation  of  individual  self-interest, 
or  out  of  unanticipated  workings  of  the  established  so- 
cial and  political  and  economic  institutions,  or  out  of 
the  failure  of  those  institutions  to  do  all  that  is  expected 
of  them,  or  their  failure  to  adapt  themselves  to  changed 
demands.  One  after  another  these  conditions  take  their 
place  among  the  recognized  social  problems,  along  with 
the  orphans  and  widows  and  other  dependent  poor,  the 
sick  and  the  criminal,  and  become  the  object  of  a  new 
kind  of  social  work.  Measures  are  taken  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  poverty,  disease,  and  crime,  and  of 
raising  the  general  level  of  well-being  by  increasing 
opportunities  and  removing  discouragements  and  hind- 
rances over  which  the  individual  has  no  control. 

MEANING  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

Social  work,  then,  is  the  sum  of  all  the  efforts  made 


22  Social  Work 

by  society  to  "take  up  its  own  slack,"  to  provide  for 
individuals  when  its  established  institutions  fail  them, 
to  supplement  those  established  institutions  and  to 
modify  them  at  those  points  at  which  they  have  proved 
to  be  badly  adapted  to  social  needs.  It  may  have  for 
its  object  the  relief  of  individuals  or  the  improvement 
of  conditions.  It  may  be  carried  on  by  the  government 
or  by  an  incorporated  society  or  by  an  informal  group 
or  by  an  individual,  or  it  may  be  a  temporary  ex- 
crescence on  some  older  institution  which  exists  prim- 
arily for  some  other  function.  It  may  be  well  done 
or  badly;  according  to  the  most  enlightened  system 
which  intelligence  and  experience  and  sympathy  and 
vision  can  devise,  or  according  to  the  archaic  methods 
of  careless  and  lazy  emotion.  It  may  be  inspired  by 
sympathy  or  expediency  or  fear  of  revolution  or  even 
of  evolutionary  change,  or  by  a  sense  of  justice  and 
decency.  It  includes  everything  which  is  done  by 
society  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  not  in  position 
to  compete  on  fair  terms  with  their  fellows,  from 
whatever  motive  it  may  be  done,  by  whatever  agency 
or  whatever  means,  and  with  whatever  result. 

There  is  social  work  which  is  so  badly  done  as  to  de- 
feat its  purpose.  There  is  philanthropy  which  confirms 
dependence  instead  of  relieving  it;  there  are  reforma- 
tories which  educate  to  crime  instead  of  away  from 
it ;  there  are  laws  intended  to  improve  conditions  which 
make  them  worse.  Such  undertakings  are  social  work, 
but  of  a  low  grade.     On  the  other  hand,  by  no  means 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  23 

everything  which  does  contribute  to  human  welfare  is 
social  work. 

MAKING  A  LIVING   NOT   SOCIAL    WORK 

Social  work,  in  the  first  place,  does  not  include  what 
the  individual  does  for  his  own  benefit  or  that  of  his 
family.  The  making  of  a  living  is  not  social  work. 
The  factory,  the  farm,  the  bank,  the  commercial  office, 
the  retail  store,  and  the  other  features  of  our  economic 
life  through  which  these  individual  efforts  are  made, 
are  more  important  than  hospitals  and  reformatories 
and  child  welfare  committees,  but  what  they  do  is  not 
social  work.  The  individual  expects  and  is  expected 
to  pay  his  way.  Otherwise  he  is  a  social  debtor  rather 
than  a  member  in  full  and  regular  standing  of  the 
community  in  which  he  lives.  It  is  when  individual 
initiative  fails  for  some  reason,  or  when  it  is  thwarted 
by  some  adverse  condition  which  can  be  modified  only 
by  organized  effort,  or  when  the  economic  institutions 
develop  injurious  features  and  fail  to  take  human  re- 
quirements into  account,  that  social  work  begins. 
Social  work  may  have  to  discover  what  is  lacking  in 
an  individual's  earning  power  and  may  have  occasion 
to  make  adjustments  in  his  working  relations;  or  it 
may  have  to  search  out  the  socially  objectionable  fea- 
tures in  industrial  development  and  secure  remedies 
for  them.  These  interventions  become  necessary,  how- 
ever, because  the  usual  and  natural  process  has  failed, 
temporarily  or  permanently,  partially  or  wholly. 


24  Social  Work 


UNIVERSAL    SOCIAL    INSTITUTIONS 

Similarly  it  does  not  include  the  services  rendered 
by  those  social  institutions — the  family,  the  church, 
the  courts,  the  press — which  have  been  slowly  devel- 
oped through  centuries  of  experimentation,  to  meet 
universal  human  needs.  These,  like  individual  initia- 
tive and  the  economic  institutions,  are  of  far  more 
significance  in  our  social  economy  than  is  social  work. 
In  fact,  if  they  all  functioned  perfectly — if  every  indi- 
vidual had  his  place  in  a  family  which  could  give  him 
all  that  is  expected  in  theory  of  the  family;  if  the 
church  reached  every  individual,  for  consolation  and 
discipline,  and  succeeded  in  developing  his  moral  nature 
to  a  high  degree;  if  religion  always  gave  a  "way  of 
life"  and  those  who  profess  it  w^alked  therein;  if  the 
courts  dispensed  even-handed  justice  promptly;  if  the 
school  taught  every  child  the  essential  elements  of  a 
useful  education;  if  the  press  exercised  unimpeachable 
judgment  in  the  selection  and  interpretation  of  news, 
and  superlative  skill  in  telling  it — there  would  be  little 
or  no  place  for  social  work.  It  is  when  they  fail, 
and  the  consequences  become  apparent  in  suffering 
or  hardship  to  human  beings,  that  social  work  must 
step  in. 

COMMON   SERVICES  OF   GOVERNMENT 

Social  work,  furthermore,  does  not  include  those 
well-established  undertakings  of  the  government  which 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  25 

are  carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  members  of 
the  community  alike,  such  as  the  cleaning  and  lighting 
of  streets,  provision  for  a  water  supply  and  for  the 
disposal  of  sewage,  inspection  of  foods,  protection 
against  fire,  the  educational  system  and  the  police  sys- 
tem. These  are  co-operative  undertakings,  in  which  the 
welfare  of  all  members  of  the  community  is  at  stake, 
and  which  are  deputed  to  the  government  because  on 
the  whole  that  is  considered  more  advantageous  and 
more  convenient  than  to  leave  them  to  private  enter- 
prise. They  too  are  more  important  to  the  general 
welfare  than  is  social  work,  since  they  affect  the  daily 
life  of  all,  but  they  are  not  social  work.  They  may 
not,  it  is  true,  affect  all  in  the  same  degree.  The  rich 
man  may  not  use  the  public  schools  for  his  children; 
he  may  employ  private  watchmen  to  protect  his  house 
and  his  factory;  he  may  pay  high  prices  to  make  sure 
of  getting  pure  milk.  But  even  so  he  profits  indirectly — 
through  the  higher  quality  of  the  labor  supply  he  em- 
ploys, for  example — from  the  minimum  of  education 
and  safety  and  comfort  and  convenience  which  has  been 
established  for  all.  These  facilities,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  be  so  managed  as  to  benefit  the  rich  more  than  the 
poor :  the  streets  where  the  rich  live  may  be  kept  clean 
and  well  lighted  and  adequately  policed,  at  the  expense 
of  the  streets  where  the  poor  live ;  the  schools  attended 
by  children  in  comfortable  circumstances  may  have 
better  teachers  and  better  janitors  and  better  equip- 
ment.    In  so  far  as  this  is  the  case,  the  government 


26  Social  Work 

fails  of  that  impartiality  on  which  the  citizens  rely  in 
entrusting  these  enterprises  to  it. 

MUTUAL    ASSOCIATIONS 

Equally  outside  social  work,  as  we  conceive  it,  are 
those  activities  which  are  carried  on  by  voluntary  asso- 
ciations of  persons  with  common  interests,  for  their 
own  mutual  benefit.  Trade  unions,  chambers  of  com- 
merce, social  clubs,  employers'  and  merchants'  and 
bankers'  associations,  farmers'  granges,  war  veterans' 
organizations,  professional  associations,  mutual  benefit 
societies  for  insurance  against  sickness  or  any  other  con- 
tingency, and  the  like,  are  not  primarily  agencies  for 
social  work,  although  they  are  useful  organizations, 
and  any  of  them  may  engage  in  social  work  inci- 
dentally. This  they  do,  for  example,  when  they 
initiate,  or  join  others  in  promoting,  movements 
for  the  general  improvement  of  living  conditions 
or  working  conditions ;  when  they  contribute  from  their 
funds  to  causes  outside  their  main  purpose,  such  as  a 
relief  fund  for  the  victims  of  a  disaster;  even  per- 
haps, though  this  is  not  far  from  mutual  insurance, 
when  they  aid  sick  or  unfortunate  members  of  their 
own  organization  who  have  not  contributed  to  a  fund 
for  the  purpose.  Trade  unions  are  not  social  work. 
They  are  organized  by  members  of  a  trade  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  their  wages  and  otherwise  im- 
proving their  conditions.  There  is,  however,  a 
Woman's  Trade  Union  League,  created  for  the  purpose 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  27 

of  promoting  the  organization  of  trade  unions  among 
women,  which  is  a  national  body,  supported  by  volun- 
tary contributions,  and  composed  of  men  and  women 
from  various  occupations  whose  common  interest  is 
the  purpose  of  the  League.  It  is  clearly,  therefore, 
according  to  our  definition,  an  example  of  social  work, 

FLUIDITY  AND  EXPERIMENTAL   CHARACTER 

Social  work,  then,  is  distinguished  from  the  socially 
beneficial  undertakings  prompted  by  self-interest,  on 
behalf  of  oneself,  one's  family,  or  one's  associates  in 
a  trade  or  a  profession  or  a  social  group;  and  it  is 
distinguished  from  the  socially  beneficial  institutions 
which  serve  all  members  of  society  alike,  in  that  it  is 
undertaken  by  the  stronger  and  more  fortunate  mem- 
bers of  society  in  behalf  of  the  weaker  and  less  for- 
tunate. It  may  be  undertaken  from  any  one  of  a  wide 
variety  of  motives,  and  it  is  usually  directed  towards 
promoting  self-help  in  one  way  or  another,  but  its 
object  is  to  do  something  for  the  benefit  of  others, 
because  they  cannot  do  it  for  themselves,  or  because 
they  have  not  yet  seen  the  importance  of  doing  it  for 
themselves;  to  care  for  those  who  cannot  or  will  not 
care  for  themselves  and  their  natural  dependents,  to 
remove  unnecessary  obstacles  and  to  increase  oppor- 
tunities for  those  who  otherwise  could  not  reach  the 
opportunities  or  overcome  the  difficulties. 

From  what  has  been  said  of  the  function  of  social 
work,  it  is  obvious  that  its  content — or  perhaps  we 


28  Social  Work 

should  say,  its  table  of  contents — is  constantly  chang- 
ing. The  number  of  those  who  require  care  and  the 
kind  of  care  they  require;  the  particular  respects  in 
which  social  institutions  are  inadequate;  the  nature  of 
the  adverse  social  conditions — in  short,  the  precise  com- 
plexion and  contour  and  number  of  the  social  prob- 
lems which  furnish  its  tasks — vary  in  different  coun- 
tries, in  different  communities,  and  at  different  periods 
in  the  same  community.  Other  factors  also  vary :  the 
degree  of  public  interest  in  social  problems,  the  charac- 
ter and  ability  of  the  leaders  in  social  work,  the  financial 
and  intellectual  resources  available  for  it,  and  other 
circumstances  which  affect  the  amount  and  kind  of 
social  work  that  is  done.  A  leader  with  prophetic 
vision  may  arise,  or  one  with  the  capacity  for  realizing 
visions  first  seen  by  others.  The  habit  of  giving  gener- 
ously may  become  established.  Striking  experiments 
may  become  contagious.  One  voice  like  that  of  Eliza- 
beth Fry  or  Jacob  Riis  or  Jane  Addams  may  give 
direction  to  innumerable  individual  impulses.  Experi- 
ence condemns  certain  methods  and  they  are  aban- 
doned— sometimes.  Scientific  discoveries  suggest  new 
ones. 

Social  work,  therefore,  is  necessarily  fluid,  and  never 
in  equilibrium.  There  is  no  institution  or  method 
which  long  serves  its  purpose.  Something  of  the  Amer- 
ican readiness  to  scrap  machinery,  processes,  and  plants 
in  industry  is  characteristic  of  American  social  work. 
Even  when  the  name  of  an  institution  survives — as  in 


The  Scope  of  Social  Work  29 

the  case  of  the  hospital — the  thing  itself  changes.* 
An  institution  Hke  the  almshouse  comes  into  existence 
on  a  wave  of  reform.  It  is  heralded  with  enthusiasm. 
In  comparison  with  what  it  replaces  it  deserves  that 
enthusiasm.  But  hardly  is  it  accepted  and  in  operation 
before  it  becomes  in  turn  the  subject  of  criticism, 
attack,  and  reform. 

Even  in  its  character  of  guardian  and  care-taker  of 
the  failures  and  the  wreckage  of  society,  social  work 
is  constantly  facing  new  needs  and  finding  new 
methods.  Still  more  marked  are  the  changes  which 
take  place  in  its  efforts  to  improve  living  and  working 
conditions.  On  this  side,  social  work  is  to  citizenship 
as  a  good  scout  is  to  the  regular  soldier,  a  flying  squad- 
ron to  the  fleet,  an  exploring  pioneer  to  the  permanent 
settler.  It  focusses  attention  on  some  neglected  evil; 
or  it  seizes  upon  some  unmet  need,  some  unrealized 
possibility,  and  applies  to  it  intensively  the  remedy  which 
will  ultimately  be  recognized  as  normal  to  social  action 
in  general.  It  has  the  courage  of  its  convictions.  It 
undertakes  to  demonstrate  how  it  would  seem  if  the 
community  were  actually  to  use  common  sense,  a 
scientific  method,  and  tested  verified  knowledge,  In 
reference  to  the  particular  problem.  In  these  under- 
takings, if  social  work  does  Its  part  wisely  and  thor- 
oughly, the  problem  may  eventually  disappear.     Child 


*  Though  when  we  chang-e  the  name  of  an  institution — as 
the  Department  of  Public  Charities  or  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society — the  thing  itself  frequently  is  unchanged. 


30  Social  Work 

labor  may  be  abolished,  for  example,  or  knowledge  of 
the  essential  facts  about  tuberculosis  may  become  prac- 
tically universal,  and  facilities  for  treatment  available 
for  all.  Or,  if  it  is  another  kind  of  problem,  the 
result  may  be  that  society  decides  that  what  was 
originally  undertaken  for  its  less  favored  members 
might  well  be  provided  for  all,  irrespective  of  their 
ability  to  provide  it  for  themselves.  Free  schools,  for 
example,  originated  in  America  as  a  charity  provided 
for  the  children  of  the  poor;  and  it  is  not  inconceivable 
that  the  time  may  come  when  we  shall  consider  the 
providing  of  competent  medical  service,  free  to  all 
citizens,  as  a  suitable  undertaking  of  government,  fin- 
anced by  taxes,  just  as  we  came  to  that  decision  about 
educational  facilities. 


CHAPTER    III 
CHARACTER  OF  AMERICAN  SOCIAL  WORK 


Social  work  in  America  has  exhibited  a  character  of 
its  own,  different  from  the  activities  to  which  it  corre- 
sponds in  other  countries.  The  United  States  is  favor- 
ably situated  by  nature  for  an  extraordinary  agricul- 
tural, industrial,  and  commercial  development.  The 
sheer  extent  of  territory  under  one  political  system,  free 
from  internal  tariff  boundaries,  from  passport  restric- 
tions, and  from  octroi  taxes  such  as  have  been  relied 
upon  to  meet  local  expenses  in  European  municipalities ; 
the  rich  mineral  deposits  and  the  fertile  soils;  the 
abundance  of  free  or  inexpensive  land  awaiting  the 
slightest  surplus  of  population  in  congested  centers;  the 
coast  contours,  with  many  excellent  harbors,  and  rivers 
penetrating  the  interior;  the  abundant  forests;  the  wild 
game  with  which  it  was  originally  stocked,  the  plenti- 
ful supply  of  salt  and  fresh  water  fish ;  the  cheap  graz- 
ing on  the  western  plains,  and  the  easy  transition  to 
cultivated  corn  and  other  feed  for  cattle,  sheep,  and 
hogs  raised  for  the  market, — these  may  illustrate,  for  it 
would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  all  the  advantages  furn- 

31 


32  Social  Work 

ished  by  nature  for  a  prosperous  social  economy  in  this 
country. 

AMERICAN   ECONOMIC  IDEALS 

Our  economic  ideals  have  naturally  reflected  the 
abundance  and  variety  of  physical  resources.  We  have 
expected  every  one  as  a  matter  of  course  to  provide 
for  himself  and  his  family.  Extreme  individualism 
has  flourished.  Economic  co-operation  has  been  diffi- 
cult becaiise  it  has  not  been  felt  to  be  necessary.  Vig- 
orous independence  has  sometimes  degenerated  into 
surly  eccentricity.  The  isolation  of  the  pioneer  created 
a  self-reliant  and  generally  neighborly  type,  but  one 
jealous  of  his  rights  and  suspicious  of  those  who  pro- 
fessed altruistic  aims.  The  prevailing  protestantism 
in  religion  strengthened  the  confidence  in  private  judg- 
ment and  the  inclination  to  exercise  it  in  all  fields. 
Sectionalism  in  politics  was  a  natural  result  of  the 
conditions  of  life,  but  there  were  influences  to  coun- 
teract it,  chief  of  which  was  the  all  but  universal  use 
of  the  English  language.  Except  for  the  disturbances 
caused  by  the  anomaly  of  slavery,  and  a  few  minor 
differences,  attributable  mainly  to  a  lack  of  ready  com- 
munication, our  economic  ideals  throughout  the  country 
have  been  singularly  uniform.  We  have  traditionally 
held  that  the  skilled  workingman  should  become  easily 
and  rather  promptly  independent  of  his  employer,  or 
able  to  bargain  with  him  on  equal  terms ;  that  the  farm 
laborer  should  become  a  farm  owner ;  that  wages  should 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  33 

be  kept  high  by  these  easy  transitions  and  by  the  possi- 
biHty  of  moving  out  to  where  free  land  could  be  ob- 
tained; that  every  boy  should  be  free  to  follow  some 
other  occupation  than  that  of  his  father;  that  the  wife 
should  have  some  degree  of  economic  independence; 
that  some  form  of  saving  should  be  expected  from 
every  one  earning  a  normal  income ;  that  all  occupations 
in  which  one  can  earn  a  living  should  be  held  in  honor- 
able esteem — a  farmer  or  a  machinist,  not  merely 
theoretically,  but  in  every  sense,  as  good  as  a  banker 
or  a  lawyer ;  that  every  career  should  be  open  to  ambi- 
tion and  persistence. 

Some  of  these  ideals  have  been  rudely  shaken,  but 
they  were  scarcely  questioned  until  very  recently  except 
by  radical  agitators,  and  even  now  they  are  tenaciously 
held  by  the  vast  majority  of  Americans.  Social  work^ 
as  it  is  and  as  it  has  been  in  this  country,  cannot  be 
understood  without  keeping  them  constantly  in  mind. 

RELIGIOUS    IDEALS 

Religious  ideals  have  been  as  formative  in  American 
social  work  as  economic  conditions.  Christian  charity 
has  indeed  been  its  corner-stone.  To  feed  the  hungry ; 
to  shelter  the  homeless;  to  clothe  the  naked;  to  care 
for  the  widow  and  the  fatherless;  to  visit  those  who 
are  sick  and  those  who  are  in  prison;  to  console  the 
afflicted ;  to  bury  the  indigent  dead ;  to  find  a  home  for 
the  orphan;  to  lend  to  those  who  through  a  loan  may 


34  Social  Work 

be  enabled  to  preserve  their  self-respect;  to  teach  the 
ignorant;  to  assimilate  the  immigrant;  to  befriend  the 
friendless;  to  find  work  for  the  unemployed;  to  bring 
back  the  family  deserter  and  persuade  him  to  fulfill 
his  family  obligations ;  to  prevent  indecent  over-crowd- 
ing; to  care  for  the  sick  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
nature  of  their  infirmities,  as  well  as  to  visit  them; 
to  secure  appropriate  disciplinary  or  educational  or 
custodial  care  for  those  who  are  in  prison,  as  well  as 
to  visit  them;  to  minister  in  all  things  to  the  strength 
rather  than  to  the  weaknesses  of  those  who  are  in  dis- 
tress and  trouble, — all  this,  to  many  of  those  who  at- 
tempt it,  is  but  the  fulfillment  of  an  elementary  religious 
obligation.  That  is  not  to  say,  let  us  hasten  to  add, 
that  these  are  disagreeable  tasks  to  which  one  is  held 
by  some  stern  and  external  authority.  No  person  who 
really  acts  from  a  religious  motive  ever  so  conceives 
the  matter.  These  are  the  spontaneous,  congenial  ex- 
pressions of  a  sense  of  brotherhood,  the  good  works 
for  which  one  asks  no  special  credit,  which  the  right 
hand  is  to  conceal  from  the  left,  which  it  would  be 
unnatural  and  irreligious  to  refuse  to  perform. 

The  stern  and  uncompromising  Puritanism  of  New 
England ;  its  milder  and  more  humanitarian  Unitarian- 
ism;  the  Quaker  benevolence  of  the  middle  states;  the 
Catholic  and  Church  of  England  influences;  aggres- 
sive, pioneering  Methodism;  Baptist  and  Presbyterian 
insistence  on  private  judgment  and  scriptural  authority, 
and  all  the  many  other  forms  which  Christianity  has 


\ 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  35 

taken  among  us,  together  with  the  perhaps  equal  diver- 
sity in  Judaism  as  it  speaks  to  American  Jews,  have 
confused,  but  also  greatly  enriched,  our  religious  ideals. 
Americans  would  hardly  wish  to  exchange  the  liberty, 
toleration,  and  vitality  of  religion  in  this  country  even 
for  the  unity  which  for  example  Henry  IV  by  his  easy 
conversion  secured  in  France.  That  a  real,  as  distinct 
from  a  formal  unity  may  come,  is  no  doubt  devoutly 
to  be  desired;  but  that  there  has  been  gain  from  the 
very  struggles  which  have  taken  place  in  the  free  arena, 
from  the  fierce  clash  of  opinions  and  competition  of 
ideas,  even  from  the  attempts  at  mutual  conversion 
from  one  faith  to  another,  ordinarily  so  fruitless  in 
fact,  will  not  be  denied  by  those  who  are  willing  to 
accept  the  evolutionary  idea  as  applied  to  human  affairs. 
I  Social  work  has  often  originated  in  the  churches, 
but  even  when  there  has  been  no  official  connection 
whatever  with  any  religious  body  it  has  nevertheless 
usually  been  inspired  by  religious  ideals,  and  it  has 
given  to  thousands  an  opportunity  for  a  social  ministry 
which  they  have  felt  to  be  religious  in  every  sense.  / 

SOCIAL    IDEALS 

Our  social  ideals  have  been  closely  related  to  our 
economic  and  religious  ideals.  Our  passion  for  democ- 
racy, though  we  may  believe  it  to  be  as  ardent  as  that 
of  the  French,  has  never  been  so  severely  tested,  and 
it  had  a  very  different  historical   origin.     We  have 


36       >  Social  Work 

accepted  democracy,  rather  than  achieved  it.  Our 
democracy  is  a  gift  from  Heaven.  We  have  had  but 
to  live  in  toleration,  in  freedom,  in  comfortable  pros- 
perity, and  under  such  conditions  democracy  comes 
easy.  Some  relics  of  persecution  and  class  distinctions, 
imported  from  Europe,  we  have  had  to  discard,  but 
they  were  so  obviously  misfits  that  it  seems  almost 
absurd  to  glorify  our  ancestors  for  getting  rid  of 
them.  William  Penn  and  Roger  Williams  and  Lord 
Calvert  were  only  Admirable  Crichtons  of  an  earlier 
day.  They  deserve  credit  for  recognizing  a  new  order 
w'hen  it  was  inevitable. 

Democracy  is  not  our  only,  although  it  is  our  most 
cherished  social  ideal.  America  has  always  been  a 
melting-pot.  An  English  curate  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, after  travelling  in  the  colonies,  pictured  the  col- 
lapse that  must  immediately  follow  from  internal  antag- 
onisms and  discords  if  the  central  control  of  the  mother 
country  were  withdrawn.  It  was  not  of  differences 
among  the  colonies,  but  of  internal  conditions  within 
the  several  colonies,  that  he  was  speaking.  Each  gen- 
eration, since  Plymouth  Colony  failed  with  the  Quakers 
and  the  Baptists,  has  had  an  increasingly  difficult  task 
of  assimilation.  Fortunately,  in  the  process  it  has  had 
the  aid  of  the  previously  partly  assimilated  new-comers, 
and  so  has  measurably  succeeded. 

American  social  ideals,  then,  have  never  been  those 
of  any  one  "mother  country."  Our  language  and 
literature,  our  common  law  and  courts  of  justice,  our 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  2>7 

conceptions  of  individual  rights  and  mutual  obligations, 
we  have  mainly,  though  not  exclusively,  from  Britain. 
But  the  French  Revolution  had  an  immense  influence 
on  our  early  political  history;  the  revolutionary  move- 
ments of  1848  afifected  our  ideas;  German  education 
has  influenced  us,  and  not,  as  the  war  made  it  popular 
to  say,  unfavorably.  Italians  and  Poles,  Swedes  and 
Danes,  Irish  Catholics  and  many  others,  have  given, 
as  well  as  received,  in  the  assimilating  process.  Our 
psychology  has  ceased  to  be  that  of  the  frontiersman. 
We  are  no  longer  unmitigatedly  individualistic.  Our 
progress  and  our  retrogressions  have  not  been  those 
of  England  or  of  any  other  European  nation.  Nor 
has  our  national  life  remained  in  water-tight  compart- 
ments. Students  of  political  institutions  are  far  from 
the  truth  about  America  if  they  assume  that  we  are 
not  one  nation,  but,  like  the  British  Empire  or  the 
Swiss  Federation,  a  group  of  nations.  Americans 
feel  about  America  as  Englishmen  feel  about  England 
and  as  Irishmen  feel  about  Ireland — not  as  either  feel 
about  the  still  nebulous  British  Commonwealth;  as 
Frenchmen  feel  about  France,  not  as  Genevans  felt 
when  they  doubted,  unjustly  as  it  appeared,  the  loyalty 
of  their  German-speaking  compatriots, 

POLITICAL   IDEALS 

Our  political  institutions  and  the  ideals  which  they 
imperfectly  express  are  also  among  the  conditions  which 


38      '  Social  Work 

have  determined  the  character  of  our  social  work.* 
The  separation  of  powers — legislative,  executive,  and 
judicial;  the  existence  of  two  governments — national 
and  state;  the  reservation  of  certain  sovereign  powers 
to  the  people  of  the  states;  universal  adult  suffrage, 
without  property  or  educational  qualifications ;  political 
supremacy  of  the  white  race  in  the  south;  the  presence 
of  millions  of  unnaturalized  and  hence  unenfranchised 
aliens  in  the  north  and  west ;  our  somewhat  naive  faith 
in  what  can  be  done  by  legislation  and  by  "good  men" 
in  office;  our  tardiness  in  checking  downright  political 
corruption  and  in  appreciating  the  importance  of 
technical  experts  in  the  public  service,  are  illustrations 
of  the  political  facts  which  condition  all  our  efforts  to 
deal  with  poverty,  disease,  crime,  and  illiteracy.  Broad- 
ly speaking,  our  political  ideals  may  be  said  to  have 
been  inherited,  our  economic  ideals  to  be  in  the  making. 

DISTINGUISHING    CHARACTERISTICS 

From  the  quality  of  our  economic,  social,  religious, 
and  political  ideals  it  results  that  American  social  work 


*  No  attempt  is  made  to  press  beyond  the  logic  of  current 
usage  the  distinctions  between  economic  and  social  or  be- 
tween social  and  political  ideals.  Generally  speaking',  the 
economic  ideals  are  those  which  arise  from  work  and  income; 
social  ideals,  those  which  arise  from  association  in  groups ; 
and  political  ideals,  those  which  are  associated  with  the 
state.  Of  course  the  state  concerns  itself  with  work  and 
income,  and  social  groups  frequently  originate  in  economic 
relations.  Almost  any  social  ideal  may  be  expressed  in 
economic  or  political  terms. 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  39 

shows  certain  characteristics  which  distinguish  it  from 
the  corresponding  activities  in  other  countries. 

(1)  There  is  greater  variety.  In  the  field  of  pri- 
vate charity  individual  initiative  has  had  free  play, 
little  hampered  by  legislative  restrictions  or  by  prece- 
dents, and  comparatively  little  by  the  control  of  church 
authorities.  In  the  administration  of  public  institu- 
tions, and  in  legislation  for  effecting  improvements  in 
the  conditions  of  life  or  work,  it  is  not  a  question,  as 
in  England  or  France,  for  example,  of  passing  one  law 
by  the  national  legislative  body.  These  matters  for 
the  most  part  fall  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  states, 
and  even  within  the  states  the  bulk  of  responsibility 
still  lies  with  local  authorities  of  city,  town,  or  county. 
Forty-eight  states  with  sovereign  powers,  with  varying 
economic  and  demographic  conditions  and  varying 
historic  traditions,  inevitably  present  differences  in  their 
poor  laws  and  penal  codes  and  in  their  institutions  and 
administrative  machinery.  Even  when  a  law  is  con- 
sciously copied,  some  modification  is  generally  intro- 
duced, to  meet  local  conditions  or  prejudices  or  predilec- 
tions. 

This  situation  has  favored  experimentation.  Dif- 
ferent plans  can  be  tried  out  in  different  states  simul- 
taneously, instead  of  following  one  another  in  slow 
succession  in  the  same  state.  Progressive  states  are 
not  obliged  to  wait  for  the  education  of  public  opinion 
in  more  backward  sections.  The  newer  common- 
wealths can,  and  not  infrequently  do,  begin  at  the  point 


40  Social  Work 

reached  by  older  states  only  after  many  years  of  experi- 
ence. It  is  a  fair  question  whether  this  disconnected, 
jerky  method  of  progress  has  not  resulted  in  a  higher 
average  standard  for  the  country  than  would  have  been 
attained  by  this  time  if  jurisdiction  were  vested  in  the 
federal  government. 

(2)  The  relative  amount  of  social  work  undertaken 
on  private  initiative,  as  compared  with  that  done  by 
the  state,  is  far  greater  than  elsewhere.  This  is  partly 
because  of  the  individualism  which  until  recently  has 
been  wont  to  regard  government,  "even  in  its  best 
state,"  as  Thomas  Paine  said,  as  "a  necessary  evil," 
and  not  as  a  useful  mechanism  for  advancing  the  com- 
mon interests;  partly  because  dishonesty,  log-rolling, 
subserviency  to  the  "interests,"  and  inefficiency  have 
in  the  past  been  so  frequent  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs  that  the  instinct  of  "the  best  people"  has  been 
to  keep  everything  possible  "out  of  politics"  ;  but  partly 
also — perhaps  chiefly — because  the  social  problems  have 
been  of  more  manageable  proportions  than  in  older  or 
less  prosperous  countries,  and  have  not  demanded  the 
resources  and  the  authority  of  the  state. 

(3  In  private  philanthropy,  the  relative  amount  car- 
ried on  under  religious  auspices  is  far  less.  While  the 
churches  very  generally  have  engaged  in  relief  and 
reclamation,  the  absence  of  an  established  church  and 
even  of  a  single  prevailing  faith,  has  prevented  the 
domination  of  any  one  church  tradition,  such  as  is 
found,  for  example,  in  the  Latin  countries  of  Europe 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  41 

and  South  America  or  the  Teutonic  countries  of  north- 
ern Europe.  Since  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  moreover,  the  "secular"  or  "non-sectarian" 
charity  has  been  a  conspicuous  type,  and  it  has  been 
gaining  in  prominence  in  the  twentieth  century. 

(4)  Throughout  the  whole  system  of  charity  and 
correction,  both  public  and  private,  there  is  more  hope 
and  courage.  In  comparison  with  older  countries,  there 
has  been  less  poverty  and  degeneracy  in  America  at  any 
period.  Even  in  the  oldest  cities  there  is  no  such 
"pauper  class"  as  in  London  or  Liverpool  or  Naples. 
The  characteristic  American  attitude  towards  poverty 
has  been  one  of  impatience,  rather  than  concern.  In 
the  earlier  years  of  our  history — in  fact,  until  toward 
the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century — this  impatience 
showed  itself  in  relative  apathy  and  neglect.  It  was 
taken  for  granted  that  everybody  ought  to  be  able 
to  "get  along  somehow."  In  recent  years  it  has  shown 
a  new  and  better  aspect,  in  a  disposition  not  to  tolerate 
conditions  which  are  responsible  for  poverty  and  misery 
and  degeneracy ;  and  this  has  considerably  modified  the 
methods  used  in  the  care  of  individuals,  and  has  in- 
spired the  social  movements  which  are  the  distinctive 
form  of  philanthropic  activity  in  the  United  States  in 
the  twentieth  century. 

(5)  Finally,  there  is  the  rapidly  changing  charac- 
ter of  our  social  work,  which  has  been  discussed  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  Each  generation — each  decade, 
almost — sees  new  types  of  agencies  develop  while  older 


42  Social  Work 

forms  disappear  or  become  less  conspicuous,  sees  a 
shift  in  emphasis  and  enthusiasms,  a  realignment  of 
interests. 

TENDENCY  TO   INTEGRATION 

There  is  one  other  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
social  work  in  America  which  must  not  be  overlooked. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  consequence  of  the  determining 
conditions  which  have  been  considered  in  this  chapter 
as  it  is  of  the  resulting  vitality  of  social  work  itself 
and  the  character  it  has  assumed.  This  is  the  tendency 
to  regard  as  inter-related  all  the  varied  activities  which 
center  around  the  problems  of  poverty,  disease,  and 
crime,  and  other  abnormal  social  conditions.  In  the 
United  States  public  and  private  relief,  charity  and 
correction,  the  care  of  sick  or  criminal  or  indigent 
individuals,  and  the  efforts  to  improve  housing,  to 
provide  facilities  for  recreation,  and  so  on,  are  coming 
to  be  regarded  as  component  parts  of  an  integrated  sys- 
tem, not  as  separate  and  distinct  departments  in  the 
social  economy  of  the  nation.  The  National  Conference 
of  Social  Work,  dating  from  1873,  with  its  member- 
ship of  some  five  thousand  representatives  of  these 
various  activities,  and  an  attendance  of  three  to  five 
thousand  at  its  annual  meetings  in  recent  years,  has 
no  counterpart  in  any  foreign  country. 

Social  workers  are  often  naturally  disappointed  that 
the  public  does  not  respond  more  quickly  and  show  a 
more  sustained  interest  in  their  appeals.     They  should 


Character  of  American  Social  Work  43 

rather  be  encouraged  by  the  relatively  large  number 
who  are  open  to  appeal  and  who  do  maintain  their 
interest.  There  is  a  steady  increase  in  the  number 
of  Americans  who  are  alert  to  relieve  distress  when 
they  know  about  it,  and  to  prevent  its  recurrence;  and 
who  are  able  to  scrutinize  proposals  for  reform  with 
some  measure  of  intelligence  and  with  open  minds. 


CHAPTER    IV 
THE  STANDARD  OF  LIFE 


Our  forefathers  demanded  the  right  to  life  as  one 
of  those  inaHenable  poHtical  rights  to  which  men  are 
born.  The  center  of  interest  has  shifted  since  then. 
It  is  never  the  rights  to  which  we  are  born  that  are 
paramount  in  our  estimation,  but  the  rights  which  we 
are  still  to  achieve.  Political  rights,  achieved  by  our 
ancestors,  include  the  right  to  liberty,  the  right  to  a 
jury  trial,  the  right  to  a  day  in  court,  the  right  to 
equality  before  the  law.  We  treasure  these  rights,  and 
if  they  are  threatened  we  will  maintain  them.  They 
came  to  us  through  a  long  line  of  tradition,  of  common 
law  broadening  down  from  precedent  to  precedent. 
We  take  them  for  granted,  like  the  air  we  breathe : 
freedom  of  worship,  free  speech,  free  assembly,  the 
right  to  resist  oppression.  Because  we  take  them  for 
granted,  because  they  are  handed  down  to  us  from  the 
past,  we  rather  resent  having  to  take  the  trouble  to 
reassert  them  against  the  reactionary  stupidity  of  the 
post-war  psychology.  We  do  it  because  we  must;  but 
we  resent  it  as  a  sort  of  witch-baiting  anachronism. 
Our  real  interests  are  elsewhere.     We  do  not  intend 

44 


The  Standard  of  Life  45 

to  spill  our  blood,  to  waste  our  resources,  in  fighting 
over  again  for  the  principles  of  '76. 

NEW   MEANING  OF  THE  RIGHT  TO  LIFE 

What  rights  then  remain  to  be  established,  com- 
parable with  the  right  to  life  and  liberty  and  equality 
before  the  law?  Obviously,  certain  economic  rights: 
the  right  to  life  in  the  only  sense  in  which  it  has  mean- 
ing to  us,  the  right  to  a  life  of  economic  security  and 
independence,  the  right  to  a  decent  standard  of  living. 
The  positive  right  to  the  available  sources  of  happiness 
must  be  made  as  secure  as  the  negative  freedom  from 
interference  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  The  right 
to  be  well-born,  free  from  the  poisons  of  alcoholism 
and  venereal  disease,  free  from  mental  defect  or  a 
diathesis  to  tuberculosis — is  not  this  logically  included 
in  the  right  to  life,  as  we  understand  it? — the  right  to 
a  protected  childhood,  in  order  that  life  may  have  a 
richer  meaning;  the  right  to  a  prolonged  working 
period,  to  a  capacity  for  remaining  active  long  after 
forty,  when  old  age  now  so  often  overtakes  workers; 
the  right  to  an  over-lapping  of  the  generations,  grown 
children  becoming  active  long  before  their  parents  are 
laid  on  the  shelf,  so  that  from  this  accumulation  of 
productive  energy  the  standards  of  the  race  may  be 
lifted  above  penury  into  the  upper  levels  of  prosperity. 

Modern  social  work  then  accepts  as  a  worthy  object 
of  evolutionary,  and  if  need  be,  of  revolutionary  effort, 
the  assertion  of  the  common  right  to  a  life  correspond- 


46  Social  Work 

ins:  to  the  standards  which  our  economic  resources 
permit,  which  our  civilization  demands,  which  our  re- 
ligions sanction,  which  are  in  harmony  with  our  sense 
of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  human  hfe.  There  is  no 
occasion  to  revive  the  old  controversy  about  natural 
rights.  Political  philosophers  may  dispute  as  to  whether 
the  right  to  this  economic  life,  this  social  life,  this 
high  standard  of  life,  is  inborn,  natural,  primordial, 
inseparable  from  the  very  conception  of  humanity;  or 
whether  it  is  acquired,  a  social  achievement,  built  up 
painfully  and  consciously,  by  trial  and  error,  by  com- 
parison and  judgment,  by  lessons  learned  in  the  school 
of  Dame  Experience.  What  is  essential  is  that  we 
come  to  think  of  it  as  a  right:  to  be  freely  accorded 
by  all  socially-minded  law-abiding  citizens;  to  be 
claimed  with  passionate  ardor  by  those  to  whom  it  is 
denied;  to  be  sanctioned  by  appropriate  legislation  and 
court  decisions;  to  be  surrounded  also  by  the  sanctions 
of  morality  and  religion;  to  be  grounded  firmly  on 
scientific  foundations.  The  right  to  life,  not  as  an 
abstraction,  not  as  a  shell  of  half-forgotten  struggles 
of  the  past,  not  as  a  political  tradition,  but  as  a  con- 
crete reality:  the  right  to  be  alive,  to  share  the  vital 
currents  of  our  time,  to  be  alive  in  every  member,  to 
know  the  satisfactions  and  the  joys  of  life,  to  live 
upon  the  heights  and  to  sound  the  depths  of  life;  life 
with  content,  life  with  meaning,  not  mere  physical 
existence — this  might  be  the  new  Declaration  of  the 
Rights  of  Man. 


The  Standard  of  Life  47 


NEW    INTEREST    IN    THE    STANDARD    OF    LIVING 

The  modern  American  struggle  for  the  recognition 
of  the  standard  of  Hving  as  a  practical  measure  of 
income,  as  a  means  of  determining  the  rights  of  labor 
disputes,  as  a  means  of  determining  the  policies  of 
charitable  agencies,  as  a  means  of  deciding  whether 
salaries  paid  to  municipal  employees  are  just  and 
reasonable,  as  an  aid  in  formulating  measures  of  social 
justice,  is  about  fifteen  years  old. 

It  was  no  new  thing  for  economists  and  statisticians 
to  study  family  budgets.  The  French  engineer  Le 
Play,  director  of  the  first  Paris  World  Exposition,  did 
it  nearly  a  century  ago  more  intensively  than  it  has 
ever  been  done  since.  His  family  monographs,  describ- 
ing in  great  detail  how  families  really  lived,  every  possi- 
ble source  of  income,  every  slightest  expenditure,  every 
item  of  their  accumulated  possessions,  every  aspect  of 
the  routine  of  their  lives,  all  their  social,  religious,  and 
economic  background,  each  one  based  on  an  intimate 
acquaintance,  gained  usually  by  residence  in  the  home 
for  weeks  or  months — such  monographs  are  not  pre- 
pared in  these  days  of  hurried  preoccupation  with  many 
things.  They  required  perhaps  Le  Play's  faith  in  the 
religious  factor  in  human  lives,  in  the  conservative 
elements  in  society,  in  the  family  and  the  other  slowly 
developing  social  institutions  whose  function  is  to 
secure  permanent  individual  welfare  and  social  stability. 
We  do  not  often  find  his  large  patience,  his  scientific 


.8  Social  Work 

honesty,  his  willingness  to  use  a  professional  man's 
vacation  persistently  through  many  years  for  a  serious 
avocational  purpose.  Americans  have  collected  and 
studied  family  budgets,  as  Germans  and  English  and 
Belgians  and  others  have  done,  and  have  tried  to  draw 
general  conclusions  from  them.*  But  in  the  middle  of 
the  first  decade  of  this  century — about  the  time  of 
the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  about  the  time  of  the  San 
Francisco  fire,  about  the  time  when  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation  was  established — the  subject  of  the  stan- 
dard of  living  acquired  a  new  interest  for  social  work- 
ers, which  was  first  clearly  expressed  at  a  session  of 
the  New  York  State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection in   1906. 

Several  years  earlier  I  had  written  a  chapter  on  the 
subject — which  I  like  to  think  was  in  harmony  with 
what  followed — in  my  Principles  of  Relief.  I  was  giv- 
ing a  course  in  Columbia  University  on  the  Standard 
of  Living,  based  partly  on  a  study  of  family  budgets. 
Homer  Folks,  in  an  address  before  the  Associated 
Charities  of  Boston,  had  explicitly  demanded  that  we 
discard  once  for  all  the  notion  that  charitable  relief 
should  supply  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  and  should 
adopt  instead  as  its  guiding  principle  that  it  should 


*  Work  of  this  kind  had  been  done  by  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  under  Carroll  D.  Wright,  and  by 
the  United  States  Labor  Bureau,  under  the  same  commissioner 
and  his  successors,  especially  the  very  able  recent  occupant 
of  that  position,  Royal  S.  Meeker,  who  resigned  to  accept 
a  position  with  the  International  Labor  Bureau  of  the  League 
of  Nations  at  Geneva. 


The  Standard  of  Life  49 

supply  what  is  necessary  to  maintain  a  reasonable 
standard  of  living.  Many  had  been  interested  in  the 
idea,  and  some  had  tried  to  analyze  and  interpret  it. 
Mr.  Folks  challenged  the  societies  to  take  it  boldly 
for  their  rule  of  action :  to  ask  themselves,  in  the  case 
of  a  widow  with  children,  for  example,  not,  what  are 
their  absolute  necessities  in  the  way  of  shelter,  food, 
and  clothing,  but  what  variety  of  food,  what  changes 
of  attractive  and  comfortable  clothing,  how  large  a 
house  and  with  what  conveniences,  what  recreation, 
what  secondary  or  higher  education  for  the  children, 
what  comforts  and  niceties  of  life  are  reasonable,  that 
society  may  with  justice  claim  to  have  been  a  father 
to  the  fatherless,  rather  than  to  have  placed  a  double 
and  impossible  burden  on  the  mother  of  fatherless 
children. 

This  address  was  a  sporadic  event — a  signal,  perhaps, 
to  the  observant,  of  a  change  of  weather  impending. 
The  change  really  came  a  few  years  later,  when  Frank 
Tucker,  in  1906,  read  a  paper  before  the  New  York 
State  Conference,  speaking  what  was,  or  what  at  least 
immediately  became,  the  thought  of  many  minds  as  to 
the  relation  between  incomes  and  the  cost  of  living, — 
i.  e.,  the  cost  of  maintaining  a  reasonable  standard  of 
living. 

WHAT    IS    A    REASONABLE    STANDARD? 

Who  is  to  determine  what  is  a  reasonable  standard 
of   living?     What   is   decency?     What   is   comfort? 


50  Social  Work 

Shall  the  family  have  a  small  tenement,  a  small  cottage,. 
or  a  commodious  dwelling?  What  is  a  small  house 
or  a  comfortable  one?  How  long  is  a  string?  How 
large  are  the  desires  of  man?  Shall  a  labor  commis- 
sioner, or  a  public  welfare  commissioner,  or  a  jury  of 
citizens,  determine  what  is  a  reasonable  standard  of 
living  for  human  beings? 

The  difficulty  is  a  real  one,  and  it  makes  impossible 
the  setting  up  of  an  arbitrary  or  authoritative  standard 
which  will  be  universally  accepted.  But  it  is  not  in- 
superable. It  is  at  least  possible  to  find  out  what  man- 
ner of  Hfe  may  now  be  obtained  for  a  given  income; 
to  study  incomes  and  expenditures  and  possessions; 
to  inquire  how  many  rooms  and  what  conveniences, 
what  diet  and  clothing,  what  recreation,  what  expendi- 
tures for  health,  for  education,  for  charity,  for  religion, 
for  savings,  are  possible;  and  if  we  describe  concretely 
the  actual  life  which  we  find  among  families  liv- 
ing at  a  particular  time,  in  a  particular  community, 
on  a  given  income,  we  shall  have  at  least  a  starting 
point  for  an  understanding  of  the  relations  between 
incomes  and  the  standard  of  living. 

This  is  what  the  New  York  State  Conference  of 
Charities  undertook  to  do,  and  did.  A  representative 
committee  was  appointed,  securing  as  executive  secre- 
tary Professor  Robert  C.  Chapin  of  Beloit  College, 
who  was  spending  a  year  in  graduate  study  at  Colum- 
bia University.  We  at  the  university  agreed  that  Pro- 
fessor Chapin,  independently  of  the  findings  of  the 


The  Standard  of  Life  51 

committee,  might  present  his  own  interpretation  of  the 
study,  together  with  a  suitable  historical  introduction, 
as  his  doctor's  thesis,  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the 
requirements  of  the  university  for  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy. 

FINDINGS  OF  THE  NEW  YORK   COMMITTEE 

The  committee  found  typical  families  in  New  York 
City  living  on  $600  a  year — less  than  two  dollars  a 
day  for  every  working  day  of  the  year;  on  $650,  on 
$700,  $750,  $800,  and  so  on  up  to  $1,200  a  year,  be- 
yond which,  for  purposes  of  our  inquiry,  we  did  not 
think  it  advantageous  to  go.  We  were  a  committee  of 
a  conference  of  charities,  and  we  were  not  seeking  at 
that  time  facts  about  the  aristocracy  of  labor,  but 
merely  wished  to  make  sure  that  the  inquiry  extended 
above  the  line  of  economic  independence.  We  studied 
those  incomes  and  the  manner  in  which  they  were 
earned,  whether  by  one  member  of  the  family  or  more. 
We  studied  more  minutely  those  expenditures.  We 
tabulated  and  analyzed  them.  We  tried  to  look  at 
them  from  every  angle :  from  that  of  health  and  physi- 
cal comfort;  from  that  of  permanent  as  well  as  imme- 
diate welfare;  from  that  of  family  and  social,  as  well 
as  individual  well-being;  from  that  of  education  and 
morals.  We  drew  our  conclusions,  but  we  presented 
also  the  facts  upon  which  our  conclusions  were  based, 
so  that  others  with  different  ideas  might  deduce  their 
own  conclusions. 


52  Social  Work 

We  arranged  our  descriptions  and  facts  In  a  sort  of 
sliding  scale.  We  said:  Here  is  the  manner  of  life 
in  general  that  a  family  of  five  may  enjoy  in  New  York 
at  the  prices  prevailing  in  the  year  1907  on  an  income 
of  $600.  There  are  individual  differences,  of  course, 
springing  from  ability  to  manage,  from  training  in 
the  hard  school  of  poverty,  from  racial  and  national 
likes  and  dislikes ;  but  we  have  sought  to  include  enough 
families  to  justify  a  general  description,  and  this  is 
what  we  find.  For  $600  you  may  have  so  much  space 
to  live  in,  such  food  to  eat,  such  and  such  clothing, 
and  practically  nothing  else,  save  perhaps  burial  in- 
surance. In  fact,  unless  you  have  relatives  or  friends 
to  help  you  with  gifts,  or  unless  you  apply  to  the  relief 
agencies,  you  will  not  be  able  to  meet  the  minimum 
physiological  requirements  for  health  and  vigor.  You 
will  not  be  strong  for  work ;  you  and  your  children  will 
be  under-nourished.  You  will  not  have  milk  for  the 
babies,  or  enough  fruit  and  vegetables  for  the  adults. 
You  will  take  an  excess  of  bread  or  macaroni,  of 
coffee  and  tea,  of  stimulants  and  narcotics.  You  will 
have  no  savings  for  sickness  or  old  age.  Your  income, 
especially  if  earned  wholly  or  in  part  by  mother  and 
children,  will  be  more  hardly  earned  than  is  warranted, 
at  the  expense  of  the  care  of  the  home  and  the  welfare 
of  the  children.  In  misfortune  or  old  age  you  will 
become  burdens  on  the  community,  so  that  the  real 
cost  of  your  living  is  not  represented  by  your  present 
expenditures.     You  are  altogether  a  bad  bargain  for 


The  Standard  of  Life  53 

society — you  $600  families — a  still  worse  bargain,  of 
course,  if  your  income  is  less  than  $600,  or  is  irregular. 
Society  ought  not  to  allow  you  to  exist.  Social  debtors 
are  a  bad  bargain,  and  the  average  family  with  an 
income  of  $600  or  less,  even  at  the  prices  of  fifteen 
years  ago  is  a  social  debtor. 

We  found  that  incomes  of  $700  secured  a  little  more 
room,  a  better  diet,  a  nearer  approach  to  independence. 
Ten  years  earlier  that  income  might  have  represented 
economic  sufficiency.  John  Mitchell,  in  his  book  on 
Organized  Labor,  had  named  $600  as  the  lowest  amount 
on  which,  throughout  the  country,  an  American  stan- 
dard of  living  could  be  maintained.  I  had  given  the 
same  amount  as  the  cost  of  supplying  the  necessities 
of  a  family  dependent  on  charitable  relief  in  New 
York.*  But  prices  had  advanced,  and  our  ideas  as  to 
what  constitutes  a  minimum  normal  life  had  also  ad- 
vanced. Not  until  the  income  was  well  above  $800  a 
year,  earned  in  a  regular  and  reasonable  employment  by 
the  male  head  of  the  family,  did  we  find  a  prevailing 
standard  which  in  the  least  corresponded  to  our  con- 
ception of  comfort,  decency,  and  a  chance  for  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness.  There  were  some,  of  course,  who 
lived  on  less  and  lived  decently.  But  their  capacity 
for  management  was  exceptional,  or  fortune  favored 
them  in  some  way  which  could  not  be  generalized. 
Most  of  those  who  had  less  either  undermined  their 
health,  so  laying  up  burdens  for  society  in  the  future, 


'  Principles  of  Relief,  page  35. 


54  Social  Work 

or  paid  the  price  in  other  ways  injurious  to  themselves 
and  to  their  neighbors. 

In  the  dozen  years  since  these  conclusions  were  pub- 
lished in  Chapin's  book  on  Tlic  Standard  of  Living  in 
New  York  City*  costs  have  doubled  and  trebled.  Our 
statistics  have  only  a  historical  value.  Our  results 
no  longer  apply.  But  the  influence  of  the  studies  made 
among  those  few  families  by  this  temporary  committee 
has  been  very  considerable.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey 
benefited  by  the  experience.  Estimates  of  the  cost  of 
maintaining  a  decent,  an  American  standard,  began  to 
appear  more  frequently  in  labor  disputes.  Policemen, 
firemen,  street  cleaners,  longshoremen,  bank  clerks,  dis- 
covered that  they  too  had  standards  to  maintain  and 
that  traditional  wages  and  salaries  did  not  maintain 
them.  Boards  of  Estimate,  City  Councils,  mayors, 
governors,  considered  whether  appropriations  for 
higher  salaries  were  not  essential.  The  text-books  in 
economics  began  to  give  more  prominence  to  the  stan- 
dard of  living  as  an  element  at  least  among  others  in 
determining  wages.  That  standards  were  not,  in  the 
long  run,  determined  by  wages  or  other  incomes,  but 
that  on  the  contrary  standards  were  themselves  the 
dynamic  factor  in  influencing  incomes — is  the  startling 
paradox  to  which  all  serious  study  of  the  subject  leads. 

DEFINITION    OF   THE    STANDARD  OF    LIVING 

It  is  time,  however,  for  a  definition.     What  do  we 


Russell    Sage    Foundation,    1909. 


The  Standard  of  Life  55 

really  mean  by  the  standard  of  living,  in  the  sense  that 
it  becomes  a  dynamic  influence  in  our  lives,  that  it 
determines  our  income,  that  it  modifies  our  plans, 
transforms  a  naturally  lazy  workman  into  an  indus- 
trious one,  a  spendthrift  into  one  who  values  and  prac- 
tices thrift,  that  it  postpones  marriage,  limits  the  num- 
ber of  children,  twists  the  choice  of  an  occupation, 
and  furnishes  the  basis  for  determining  what  relief  is 
required  or  what  action  should  be  taken  by  a  social 
agency  which  assumes   responsibility   for  the   family 

welfare? 

The  standard  of  living,  as  it  has  significance  in  social 
work,  must  be  expressed  in  comprehensible,  general, 
but  definite  terms.  We  must  think  of  it  as  the  worker 
thinks  of  it,  as  the  average  newspaper  reader  would 
understand  it.  The  standard  of  life  includes  only » 
those  things  which  can  be  standardized.  That  is  by 
no  means  the  whole  of  life.  yVe  may  standardize  in- 
comes, but  not  so  easily  the  ability  to  make  use  of 
income.  We  may  standardize  the  amount  of  leisure 
time  which  the  worker  shall  regularly  have  at  his  dis- 
posal, but  not  the  use  which  he  shall  make  of  his 
leisure.  We  may  standardize  dwellings  in  their  general 
character — number  and  size  of  rooms,  security  from 
fire,  sanitary  arrangements,  light,  ventilation;  but  only 
very  generally  personal  furnishings,  decoration,  and 
not  at  all  the  subtler  touches  which  differentiate  one 
home  from  another.  We  may  standardize  the  amount 
of  money  available  for  clothing,  and  such  demands  as 


56  Social  Work 

that  it  shall  not  be  inadequate,  indecent,  fantastic,  and — 
if  we  like — that  it  shall  not  be  recognizable  away  from 
the  place  of  employment  as  belonging  to  a  particular 
occupation.  Clergymen  and  policemen  and  a  few  others 
may  retain  a  distinctive  dress  even  when  not  on  duty, 
or  may  be  regarded  as  always  to  some  extent  on  duty, 
but  it  is  the  ambition  of  most  workers  to  look  like  other 
citizens  when  at  home  or  on  the  street,  and  such 
change  of  clothing  as  will  make  this  possible  is  a 
part  of  their  ordinary  standard  of  living. 

The  standard  of  living  is  made  up  of  those  things 
which  many  men  in  common  hold  to  be  clearly  essential 
-to  them.  On  all  sides  of  it  there  may  be  luxuries, 
pleasures  greatly  to  be  desired,  morally  better  things, 
aesthetically  more  beautiful  things,  economically  more 
valuable  things,  than  those  which  make  up  the  pre- 
vailing standard.  We  are  human  beings,  not  angels 
or  saints  or  artists  or  "economic  men."  The  standard 
of  living  embraces  all  those  things  which  we  want,  and 
want  enough  to  secure  them;  which  have  a  vital  im- 
portance for  us;  for  which  we  are  willing  to  make 
sacrifices.  It  includes  those  things  which  from  our 
point  of  view  belong  in  the  daily  routine  of  our  lives. 
If  deprived  of  anything  which  is  really  in  our  standard 
we  will  at  once  set  in  motion  forces  which  will  tend 
to  bring  it  back.  We  will  work  longer  hours,  or  more 
Intensely.  Perhaps  we  will  try  to  use  force,  resorting 
to  government  or  collective  action. 


The  Standard  of  Life  S7, 

THE  PREVAILING  AMERICAN   STANDARD 

The  Standard  of  living  in  American  communities 
includes  a  dwelling  with  reasonable  light,  heat,  ventila- 
tion, and  privacy.  It  is  expected  to  be  built  so  that 
it  will  not  collapse,  and  to  be  protected  from  undue 
fire  risk.  Four  rooms  is  ordinarily  regarded  as  a 
minimum  even  for  a  small  family,  and  the  tendency 
IS  to  consider  that  there  is  overcrowding  whenever, 
besides  kitchen,  living  and  bath  room,  there  are  not 
sleeping  rooms  to  give  at  least  one  for  every  two  per- 
sons, with  due  allowances  also  for  the  proprieties  of 
sex,  age,  and  relationship.  In  cities  where  tenement 
and  apartment  houses  are  the  rule,  a  rough  formulation 
of  the  prevailing  standard  puts  an  average  of  two 
rooms  for  every  three  persons,  including  rooms  used 
in  common,  but  this  cannot  properly  be  applied  to  two 
or  three  room  apartments,  unless  in  the  case  of  a 
married  couple  without  children,  for  whom  three  rooms 
might  not  be  regarded  as  inadequate,  at  least  as  a 
temporary  arrangement.* 

As  in  the  case  of  any  other  element  in  the  recognized 
standard  of  living,  the  home  must  be  as  commodious, 
as  well  located,  as  attractive,  as  safe — in  short,  as 
desirable — as  those  of  neighbors  or  associates.  It  may 
be  at  the  top  of  a  six  story  "walk-up"  tenement,  or  in 


*  The  scarcity  of  houses  at  the  close  of  the  World  War 
and  the  increase  of  Hprht  housekeeping  has  at  least  temnorarily 
reduced  these  standards  in  many  cities. 


58  Social  Work 

a  suburb,  with  a  garden  and  chicken-yard.  It  may  be 
owned  or  rented.  It  may  have  been  the  dwelHng  place 
of  the  family  for  generations,  or  it  may  have  sheltered 
a  rapidly  changing  succession  of  tenants.  '  It  may  owe 
its  desirability  to  its  location  near  the  place  of  employ- 
ment, to  its  physical  surroundings,  to  convenience  of 
transportation,  to  educational  advantages,  or  to  a  mere 
whim  of  custom. 

The  house  must  be  fully  furnished  with  beds,  tables, 
chairs,  cupboards,  carpets  or  rugs,  curtains  and  shades, 
and  the  modern  conveniences  of  kitchen,  laundry,  and 
bath-room.  Pictures  and  other  ornaments  are  as  much 
a  matter  of  course  as  dishes  and  utensils.  If  there 
are  not  stoves  it  will  only  be  because  the  house  is  heated 
by  furnace  or  otherwise.  Gas  and  electricity  may  be 
taken  for  granted  in  towns,  and  hot  and  cold  running 
water  in  kitchen,  bath-room,  and  laundry.  Whether 
there  shall  be  a  vegetable  garden,  flowers,  hedge,  pave- 
ment, veranda,  sleeping  porch,  garage,  depends  on 
circumstances.  In  many  places  an  automobile  is  not 
far  outside  the  standard  of  living,  if  not  actually  a 
recognized  and  secure  feature  of  it.  Nowhere  would 
the  right  to  a  comfortable,  sanitary  dwelling,  as  an 
elementary  basis  for  normal  family  life,  be  questioned. 

The  diet  in  the  American  standard  of  living  is  rela- 
tively varied  and  abundant.  It  includes  fresh  fruit  and 
vegetables  in  season,  and  dried,  canned,  or  preserved 
fruits  and  vegetables  when  the  markets  do  not  supply 
them  fresh.     Meat,  fish,  and  eggs  are  important  ele- 


The  Standard  of  Life  59 

ments  in  the  diet,  and  milk  for  children.  Over-eat- 
ing is  more  common  in  America  than  under-nourish- 
ment.  Waste  at  the  garbage  pail  is  more  common  than 
in  European  countries,  even  before  the  present  scarci- 
ties in  Europe  and  since  the  education  in  economies 
which  the  American  house-wife  received  during  the 
war.  Too  large  a  proportion  of  the  population  fail 
to  get  full  value  from  what  they  spend  for  food,  from 
lack  of  elementary  knowledge  of  how  to  select  and  how 
to  prepare  it.  The  standard  of  living  would  therefore 
be  improved  if  less  attention  were  paid  to  quantity 
and  more  to  quality,  more  to  preparation  and  con- 
servation of  food  and  less  to  favorite  dishes,  espec- 
ially those  which  are  more  appetizing  than  digestible. 
The  standard  is  high,  but  qualitatively  capable  of  im- 
provement, and  it  is  in  fact  undergoing  a  rapid  change 
for  the  better. 

Among  those  who  are  industrially  employed,  the 
eight  hour  day  and  one  day  in  seven  of  complete  rest 
from  ordinary  toil  are  now  universally  regarded  as 
legitimate  objects  of  desire  and  struggle.  Although 
they  have  not  been  universally  attained,  it  is  fair  to 
say  that  they  are  a  part  of  the  accepted  standard  of 
living  of  American  workingmen  and  women.  Em- 
ployers who  refuse  them,  even  though  they  may  be 
among  the  great  industrial  corporations,  are  constantly 
on  the  defensive.  The  worker  has  a  right  to  leisure  for 
his  own  sake,  for  the  welfare  of  his  family,  and  in 
the  interest  of  the  community.    This  right  is  now  most 


60  Social  Work 

frequently  expressed  in  terms  of  the  eight-hour  day, 
although  for  women,  for  adolescents,  and  for  men  in 
certain  arduous  employments,  the  standard  of  living 
requires  more  than  an  average  of  sixteen  hours  of 
every  twenty-four  for  sleep,  meals,  recreation,  and 
other  necessary  demands.  For  them  the  working  week 
must  be  correspondingly  shortened  to  forty-four  hours 
or  less.  Those  who  work  on  their  own  account — in 
the  home,  on  farms,  as  independent  artisans  or  small 
merchants,  or  in  any  of  the  professions — ordinarily 
observe  no  such  limitations ;  and  those  who  have  done 
their  regular  work  in  mine  or  factory  may  of  course 
work  about  their  own  homes  in  their  leisure  hours. 

The  standard  of  life  requires  income  enough  to  sup- 
port the  family  without  wage-earning  labor  by  young 
children  or  by  the  mother  who  is  responsible  for  the 
care  of  children.  It  consecrates  childhood  to  nurture 
and  education  and  play,  to  growth  in  freedom  and  under 
protection.  It  demands  provision  for  health :  both  pro- 
fessional care  in  actual  sickness  and  infirmity;  and 
whatever  precautionary  measures  are  necessary  to  con- 
serve health,  physical  well-being,  resistance  to  disease. 
Health  does  not  depend  entirely  on  income.  It  is 
primarily  gained  and  held  by  the  habitual  practice  of 
personal  and  public  hygiene,  and  this  may  easily  cost 
less  than  the  indulgences  which  endanger  health.  But 
the  care  of  teeth  and  of  eyesight,  periodical  physical 
examinations,  and  the  rigorous  following  up  of  any 
correctional  action  \yhich  such  examinations  may  show 


The  Standard  of  Life  61 

to  be  necessary,  involve  outlay,  at  times  of  very  con- 
siderable amounts.  Health,  leisure,  and  elementary 
education  belong  with  shelter,  food,  and  raiment  in 
the  normal  standard  of  life. 

INFLUENCE  OF    A    HIGH    STANDARD 

The  relatively  high  standard  of  life  has  furnished 
the  background  for  social  work  in  America.  It  influ- 
ences everything  that  people  do  for  themselves  and 
everything  that  social  workers  do  for  them.  Through 
an  instinctive,  or  finally  a  fully  conscious  appreciation 
of  what  the  standard  of  a  particular  racial  or  economic 
group  is  at  a  given  time,  the  decision  is  made  as  to 
when  social  work  shall  step  in  and  how  far  it  shall 
go.  On  the  other  hand,  it  obviates  the  need  for  relief, 
for  discipline,  for  outside  warning,  for  treatment,  by 
its  own  stimulating  and  healing  influence.  It  furnishes 
motives,  overcomes  temptations,  keeps  the  wayward 
steady,  the  inebriate  sober,  the  genius  at  work.  When 
the  standard  of  life  is  clearly  visualized  and  well  but- 
tressed it  ensures  that  many  serious  problems  will  be 
rightly  solved  within  the  home — without  publicity,  and 
it  ensures  that  many  others  will  be  dealt  with  compre- 
hensively by  the  community,  without  humiliation  or 
condescension  by  any,  with  hearty  acceptance  by  all 
of  social  responsibility.* 


*  The  author's  Normal  Life  (Part  I  of  this  text-book  in 
Social  Economy)  is  a  study  by  age  periods  of  the  essentials 
of  a  reasonable  standard  of  life  as  commonly  held  among  us 
at  the  present  time,  and  of  the  concrete  problems  which  arise 
when  they  fail. 


CHAPTER    V 
CLASSIFICATIONS  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 


As  we  look  about  over  the  field  of  social  work,  it  is 
obvious  that  there  are  several  bases  on  which  the  vast 
number  of  heterogeneous  activities  might  be  classified. 
It  is  equally  obvious  that  there  is  no  "natural"  classi- 
fication, logically  inevitable  and  acceptable  to  all  con- 
cerned. Whatever  basis  is  selected,  certain  agencies 
will  belong  in  more  than  one  group,  and  on  the  other 
hand  there  will  be  in  each  group  certain  agencies  which 
may  not  themselves  recognize  their  affiliations  with 
others  in  the  same  group.  For  purposes  of  our  study 
the  desirable  thing  is  to  find  the  classification  which 
will  help  most  to  a  comprehensive  understanding  of 
the  way  in  which  we  deal  with  our  social  problems — 
of  the  questions  and  the  principles  involved,  of  the 
relations  of  the  social  agencies  to  one  another  and 
to  the  problems  they  have  been  created  to  meet,  and 
of  the  relations  of  the  whole  fabric  of  social  work  to 
the  rest  of  our  social  economy. 

ACCORDING    TO    AUSPICES 

One  possible  basis  of  classification  is  according  to 

62 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  63 

the  auspices  under  which  the  agency  operates.  A 
large  part  of  the  social  work  in  America  to-day  is 
carried  on  by  pubHc  officials  in  the  national,  state, 
county,  town,  and  city  governments,  and  supported 
by  revenue  from  taxation.  Although  there  are  no 
general  statistics  on  the  subject,  and  although  until 
recently  we  have  been  reluctant  in  America,  as  com- 
pared with  European  countries,  to  expect  much  of 
the  state  in  these  matters,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  work  of  caring  for  the  sick 
and  defective  and  insane,  the  dependent  aged  and  chil- 
dren, the  criminals,  and  even  those  who  are  only 
temporarily  in  need  of  help  because  of  bad  luck  or 
misfortune,  is  now  done  by  public  authorities  represent- 
ing the  voters  and  tax-payers.  Institutions  and  out- 
door relief — providing  care  of  a  perfunctory  nature 
for  the  classes  which  are  too  troublesome  or  too  numer- 
ous or  not  sufficiently  appealing  to  be  provided  for  by 
private  charity — are  the  forms  of  social  work  commonly 
associated  in  the  public  mind  with  the  activities  of 
government  in  this  field,  but  there  is  hardly  a  known 
variety  which  may  not  be  found  going  on  under  public 
auspices,  and  in  quality  it  ranges  through  all  the 
possible  degrees  of  excellence. 

Historically  much  of  our  social  work  has  a  religious 
origin.  Both  education  and  healing  formerly  were 
largely  functions  of  the  churches.  The  care  of  orphans 
and  the  aged  has  throughout  recorded  history  been 
regarded  as  more  or  less  a  religious  obligation.     It 


64  Social  Work 

is  not  surprising  therefore  to  find  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant churches  and  the  Jewish  communities  alike  main- 
taining  hospitals,   homes    for   incurables   and    infirm, 
orphan   asylums,    and   relief    societies.      In   line   with 
their  traditions,  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  very 
principles  which  were  clearly  perceived  and  acted  upon 
by  early  law-givers  and  apostles,  the  churches  have 
constantly  put  forth  new  agencies   for  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  for  promoting  the  good  life.     While  foreign 
missions  have  been  especially  fertile  in  this  way,  insti- 
tutional churches  in  the  cities  at  home,   and  latterly 
community  churches  even  in  the  open  country,  have 
participated  in  or  originated  such  activities.     Under 
the  influence  of  the  new  ideas,  or  applying  old  ideas 
to  new  conditions,  the  churches  have  transformed  some 
of  their  conventional  charities  into  thoroughly  modern 
and  well-equipped  agencies. 

Since  the  eighteenth  century  Americans  have  been 
accustomed  to  organize  philanthropy  also  on  a  secular 
or  unsectarian  basis.  Societies  for  the  relief  of  widows 
and  other  special  classes,  for  relieving  destitution 
among  particular  national  groups  in  our  cities — such 
as  the  German  Society,  the  French  Benevolent  Society, 
St.  Andrew's  Society — were  established  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  before  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury more  general  associations  for  improving  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor  were  created  in  the  hope  of  asso- 
ciating together  all  citizens  of  good-will  who  might 
be  disposed  to  give  time  and  money  through  organized 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  65 

channels.  The  unedifying  spectacles  of  over-lapping 
and  competing  charities,  professional  mendicancy,  and 
withal  neglected  poverty,  led  to  new  attempts  in  the 
eighties  to  organize  charity  through  a  society  incor- 
porated for  that  purpose  under  a  variety  of  names, 
such  as  associated  charities  or  charity  organization 
society.  A  little  later  the  social  settlements  also 
represented  this  unsectarian  form  of  association ;  and 
in  the  present  century  it  has  become  increasingly  fam- 
iliar through  the  hundreds  of  societies  in  the  various 
educational  movements  for  the  prevention  of  disease 
and  other  evils,  until  it  is  perhaps  the  distinctive  type 
of  organization  in  American   social   work. 

While  this  classification  offers  perhaps  the  minimum 
amount  of  over-lapping,  still  the  groups  are  not  per- 
fectly clear-cut.  Many  private  institutions,  both  re- 
ligious and  secular,  receive  subsidies  from  public  funds. 
In  some  cities  there  are  working  agreements  which 
amount  virtually  to  combinations  of  the  department 
of  public  charities  and  the  charity  organization  society. 
The  American  Red  Cross,  though  supported  by  volun- 
tary contributions,  is  a  quasi-official  organization, 
subject  to  a  degree  of  control  by  the  government.  The 
serious  objection,  however,  to  adopting  this  classifica- 
tion in  the  present  study,  is  that  it  has  little  significance 
for  our  purposes.  The  division  of  responsibility 
between  public  authorities  and  private  enterprise  is 
haphazard  and  far  from  uniform  throughout  the 
country.     It  is  the  result  of  circumstances  rather  than 


66  Social  Work 

of  any  accepted  theory  of  what  the  division  should  be. 
Whether  any  particular  activity  in  a  given  community 
is  carried  on  by  the  city,  by  a  church,  or  by  an  unsec- 
tarian  society,   is  largely  an  accident. 

ACCORDING   TO    "PROCESS" 

A  second  possible  basis  of  classification  would  be 
according  to  the  process  employed.  We  might  analyze 
the  methods  used  by  each  agency,  pick  out  similar 
processes  wherever  they  may  be  found — whether  under 
public  or  private  auspices,  religious  or  secular,  whether 
in  institutions  or  in  societies  which  help  the  poor  in 
their  homes — and  arrive  at  some  such  classification  as : 
(1)  "case-work";  (2)  organization  and  administration 
of  institutions;  (3)  teaching  and  organization  of  small 
groups  for  educational,  recreational,  and  social  pur- 
poses; (4)  education  of  the  pubHc;  (5)  co-ordination 
and  organization  of  the  resources  of  the  community. 

A  large  part  of  all  the  social  work  which  is  done, 
whether  under  public  or  private  auspices,  religious  or 
secular,  consists  in  helping  individuals  who  need  in- 
formation or  advice  or  financial  assistance  or  encourage- 
ment or  discipline :  finding  out  what  is  "the  trouble" 
in  the  individual's  economic  or  social  circumstances, 
physical  or  mental  condition  and  endowment,  character 
and  equipment  and  surroundings,  and  trying  to  correct 
what  is  wrong  and  to  supply  the  elements  that  are 
needed  for  a  normal  development.  This  is  called  "case- 
work."     It   includes  not   only  the  work   of   "family 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  67 

societies,"  of  agencies  for  placing  homeless  children, 
of  probation  officers,  officials  in  charge  of  mothers' 
allowances  and  other  forms  of  out-door  relief,  social 
service  departments  of  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  etc.,' 
etc.,  but  is  also  an  essential  element — or  should  be — 
in  the  work  of  every  institution.  In  recent  years  the 
"technique"  of  case-work  has  been  much  discussed  by 
those  who  are  interested  in  it,  methods  have  been 
elaborated,  and  some  text-books  have  been  written 
about  it. 

A  second  process  consists  in  the  organizing  and 
administration  of  the  daily  life  of  human  beings  living 
together  in  groups :  in  homes  for  children  and  for  the 
aged ;  in  hospitals  for  the  insane  and  for  the  physically 
disabled;  in  prisons  and  reformatories;  in  fresh-air 
homes  and  camps,  and  other  institutions.  In  some 
respects  all  this  work  is  similar  to  that  required  in 
boarding-schools  and  other  institutions  which  are  in 
no  sense  "social  work,"  but  in  each  case  it  is  modified 
and  conditioned  by  the  special  character  of  the  persons 
who  are  housed  together. 

A  third  process,  which,  like  case-work,  is  more 
peculiar  to  social  work,  is  that  which  is  involved  in 
"educating  the  public."  The  educational  and  preventive 
social  movements  of  the  present  century  have  a  com- 
mon method,  consisting  of  research,  publicity,  and 
propaganda,  which,  while  it  has  taken  hints  from 
commercial  advertising  and  other  sources,  is  fairly 
distinctive.     The  teaching  done   in  clubs   and   settle- 


68  Social  Work 

ment  classes,  and  the  leadership  of  them,  might  be 
regarded  as  a  fourth  process;  and  there  is  finally  the 
kind  of  work  which  has  for  its  object  the  co-ordination 
and  harmonizing  of  existing  agencies,  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  resources  of  the  community,  as  was  done, 
for  instance,  to  provide  hospitality  and  recreation  for 
men  in  service  during  the  war,  or  to  provide  care  for 
the  sick  during  the  epidemic  of  influenza,  the  kind  of 
planning  for  future  development  of  a  community's 
social  work  which  is  done  by  the  budget  committee 
of  some  of  the  financial  federations. 

OTHER     CLASSIFICATIONS 

A  third  classification  might  be  made  on  the  basis  of 
the  locale  of  the  work:  whether  it  is  carried  on  in 
institutions  where  the  beneficiaries  are  brought  to- 
gether; in  their  own  homes;  In  the  open  air;  in  club- 
houses ;  or  in  libraries  and  business  offices.  The  series 
of  four  reports  issued  by  the  Thirteenth  Federal  Cen- 
sus covered  respectively  almshouses ;  penal  institutions ; 
institutions  for  the  Insane  and  feeble-minded;  and 
"benevolent  institutions,"  this  fourth  volume  Including 
institutions  for  the  care  of  children,  societies  for  the 
protection  and  care  of  children,  hospitals  and  sanatoria, 
dispensaries,  homes  for  adults  or  for  adults  and  chil- 
dren, institutions  for  the  blind  and  deaf.  This,  how- 
ever, is  by  no  means  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the 
social  work  of  the  United  States,  and  the  basis  of  the 
classification  is  not  obvious. 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  69 

ACCORDING  TO  THE   SOCIAL   PROBLEM 

Any  of  these  classifications  might  be  useful  for  a 
particular  purpose,  but  there  is  another  basis — accord- 
ing to  the  social  problem  involved — which  v^^ill  be 
follov^ed  in  this  book.  On  this  plan  we  shall  study 
contemporary  social  work  in  its  relation  to  poverty, 
disease,  and  crime :  the  existing  provisions  for  the 
care  of  individuals  (1)  who  are  "in  need,"  (2)  who 
are  sick  or  disabled  or  defective,  (3)  who  have  com- 
mitted or  are  likely  to  commit  crimes;  and  (4)  the 
current  efforts  to  diminish  the  amount  of  poverty, 
disease,  and  crime,  and  to  raise  the  general  level  of 
conditions  under  which  the  mass  of  the  population 
lives  and  works.  As  in  the  case  of  any  other  possible 
classification,  this  one  is  bound  to  involve  over-lapping, 
and  is  bound  to  group  together  individuals  and  agencies 
who  in  their  daily  routine  may  be  strangers — possibly 
even  enemies — to  one  another.  But  it  has  the  advan- 
tage of  keeping  always  in  the  background  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  social  problem  which  the  social  work  under 
consideration  is  designed  to  meet,  thus  giving  a  stan- 
dard for  appraisal  which  would  otherwise  be  lacking. 
For  the  test  of  social  work  is  the  extent  to  which  it 
meets  these  problems.  We  shall  then  study  social  work 
in  four  large  divisions,  according  as  it  is  concerned  with 

(A)  Relief  of  poverty:  Chapters  VI-VIII; 

(B)  Care    of    the    sick,    disabled    and    defective: 

Chapters  IX-X ; 


70  Social  Work 

(C)  Treatment  of  criminals:  Chapters  XI-XII. 

(D)  Improvement  of  living  and  v^^orking  condi- 
tions:    Chapters  XIII-XIV. 

RELIEF    OF    DEPENDENCE 

Although  "relief,"  like  "charity,"  is  a  word  curiously 
in  disfavor  of  late  years  among  certain  social  workers 
who  are  nevertheless  giving  it  every  day,  and  con- 
stantly more  abundantly,  still  it  is  an  unmistakable 
fact  that  economic  dependence  is  the  primary  social 
problem  which  furnishes  the  work  of  a  large  number 
of  social  agencies.  There  are  always,  to  be  sure,  rea- 
sons for  the  dependence,  and  it  is  these  underlying 
causes  in  every  case,  not  merely  the  dependence,  which 
the  agencies  must  "treat"  if  they  do  their  work  well; 
and  it  is  true  also  that  a  "family  society"  or  other  social 
agency  is  consulted  occasionally  by  persons  "well  above 
the  poverty  line" ;  but  still  it  is  lack  of  the  necessities 
of  life  which  brings  most  of  their  applicants  to  them, 
whatever  may  be  the  difficulties  which  are  discovered 
later;  and  it  is,  moreover,  to  pay  rent  and  to  buy  food, 
fuel,  and  clothing,  or  to  provide  maintenance  in  institu- 
tions, that  the  bulk  of  the  funds  contributed  voluntarily 
or  appropriated  by  taxation  is  spent.  If,  as  we  fre- 
quently hear,  an  increasing  proportion  of  the  applica- 
tions to  social  agencies  comes  from  "people  who  would 
never  think  of  asking  for  charity — not  at  all  the  typical 
charity  case,  you  know,"  this  only  means  that  the  line 
between   dependence   and  complete  self-sufficiency   is 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  7\ 

rightly  higher  than  it  used  to  be.  The  rising  standard 
of  what  is  essential  to  normal  life  has  revised  not  only 
the  general  conception  of  what  can  suitably  be  given 
by  public  and  private  relief  agencies,  but  also  the  ideas 
of  wage-earners  as  to  what  it  is  suitable  for  them 
to  accept.  What  they  get,  however — this  new  type  of 
"case" — special  diet,  professional  services,  advice,  or 
whatever  it  may  be — is  still  charity,  even  though  it 
does  not  stand  between  them  and  starvation  but  rather 
enables  them  to  maintain  their  standard  of  living  or 
to  improve  it.  Payments  from  the  public  treasury  to 
women  who  need  help  in  supporting  their  children  are 
still  "out-door  relief,"  even  though  they  may  be  called 
"pensions"  or  "allowances"  or  "compensation." 

Children  are  by  nature  economically  dependent  on 
some  one,  and  when  relatives  fail  their  place  must  be 
supplied  in  some  Way  by  society.  Old  people  are 
naturally  dependent  on  their  children  or  their  savings, 
but  when  these  fail  they  too  must  look  to  society  for 
maintenance.  Aside  from  these  natural  dependents  at 
each  end  of  life,  there  are  family  groups  and  individuals 
in  the  active  years  who  find  themselves  from  time  to 
time,  or  once  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  period,  unable 
to  make  both  ends  meet.  It  may  be  because  of  illness, 
making  an  unusual  demand  on  resources  or  cutting  off 
wages ;  it  may  be  because  of  lack  of  training  or  a  low 
grade  of  intelligence  which  means  a  precarious  liveli- 
hood at  best,  and  serious  want  as  soon  as  there  is  no 
market  for  labor  of  this  grade;  it  may  be  because  of 


72  Social  Work 

drink  or  improvidence  or  laziness  or  some  other  bad 
habit;  it  may  be  because  of  some  unfortunate  accident 
of  circumstances — bad  luck — or  because  of  a  general 
business  depression  which  throws  many  men  of 
average  ability  out  of  work.  Whatever  the  cause  of 
the  difficulty,  the  essence  of  the  situation,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  family  or  the  individual,  is  that  the 
rent  is  over-due,  or  the  coal  is  all  gone,  or  there  is  no 
food  in  the  house,  or  the  children's  shoes  are  worn 
out,  and  there  is  no  money,  and  they  must  have  some 
sort  of  help  from  "outside"  to  keep  going.  From 
society's  standpoint,  also,  the  obvious  and  inescapable 
element  in  the  situation  is  that  they  must  be  fed  and 
housed  and  clothed. 

The  agencies  which  belong  in  this  group  are  varied 
and  numerous :  public  almshouses  and  private  homes 
for  the  aged;  temporary  shelters;  out-door  relief  by 
overseers  or  other  public  authorities.  Home  Service 
sections  of  the  Red  Cross,  charity  organization  socie- 
ties, "family  societies,"  church  relief  funds,  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul  societies,  and  scores  of  other  agencies,  official 
and  voluntary,  religious  and  secular,  which  give  help 
to  families  in  their  own  homes;  institutions  for  the 
care  of  dependent  children,  placing-out  agencies,  homes 
for  foundlings,  public  bureaus  of  child  welfare,  and 
all  other  agencies  which  deal  with  normal,  healthy 
babies,  children,  and  adolescents. 

These  general  relief  agencies  now  usually  recognize 
their  common  interests,  though  there  are  still  unfor- 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  73 

lunate  cliques  and  arbitrary  separations,  often  arising 
in  some  accidental  way,  which  prevent  the  interchange 
of  experiences  and  ideas  where  it  might  be  very 
advantageous.  Family  welfare  is  tending  to  become 
the  favorite  term  to  express  the  central  aim  of  these 
agencies,  and  the  phrase  is  now  frequently  used  in 
the  name  of  the  agency.  They  are  of  course  interested 
in  all  the  other  forms  of  social  work,  and  some  of  them 
have  departments  which  actively  engage  in  one  or  more 
of  these  other  forms,  and  in  such  cases  they  belong 
in  more  than  the  one  group.  Among  the  children's 
agencies  cleavages  are  more  marked.  Formerly  insti- 
tutions and  placing-out  agencies  were  hardly  on  speak- 
ing terms,  but  this  has  happily  changed  to  a  considerable 
extent. 

CARE   OF    THE    SICK,    DISABLED,    AND   DEFECTIVE 

Disease  and  defect — mental  and  physical — is  a  second 
great  social  problem  of  primary  character,  like  economic 
dependence.  Illness  may  make  anyone  helpless,  whether 
economically  dependent  or  not.  Because  of  the  ex- 
pense involved  in  securing  proper  treatment  and  care, 
and  because  of  its  interference  with  the  normal  occu- 
pation both  of  the  one  who  is  ill  and  of  members  of 
his  family,  it  tends  to  produce  economic  dependence. 
Society  provides  for  the  sick,  however,  not  because^ 
they  are  dependent  but  because  they  are  sick,  and  even 
though  maintenance  is  provided  incidentally  for  the 
sick  poor  in  hospitals,  it  is  not  in  order  to  be  main- 


74  Social  Work 

tained  that  they  are  admitted,  but  to  be  cured  or 
relieved  of  their  physical  or  mental  disease.  Physical 
and  mental  disability  have  come  to  be  recognized  as  a 
social  problem,  irrespective  of  the  financial  status  of 
the  afflicted.  Hospitals  and  clinics,  with  many  special- 
ized varieties  of  each,  and  nursing  services  for  patients 
in  their  own  homes,  are  the  agencies  which  we  have 
for  the  care  of  the  sick.  Certain  physical  defects  also, 
and  certain  degrees  of  mental  deficiency,  require  special 
provision  for  education,  oversight,  or  guardianship, 
which  the  individual  and  his  family  are  not  usually 
in  position  to  provide. 

TREATMENT  OF  CRIMINALS 

Crime  is  the  third  of  the  great  elementary  social 
problems.  In  all  human  societies  there  are  individuals 
who  do  not  keep  the  rules  and  who  thus  become  an 
embarrassment  to  their  fellows.  What  to  do  with  them 
— how  to  restrain  them  from  injuring  others,  how  to 
secure  reparation  from  them  for  those  whom  they 
have  injured,  and  how  to  change  their  spirit  into  one 
of  cordial  acquiescence  in  the  regulations  for  the  com- 
mon good — is  a  question  which  has  puzzled  society 
from  the  earliest  days. 

The  agencies  for  the  treatment  of  criminals  which 
we  use  in  America  to-day  include  prisons,  penitentiaries, 
jails,  houses  of  correction,  reformatories  for  adults 
and  for  children,  parole  and  probation,  and  societies 
for  the  aid  of  discharged  prisoners.     Courts,  in  their 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  75 

character  as  the  common  agency  for  securing  justice  in 
civil  controversies,  and  for  discovering  the  truth  and 
applying  the  law  in  criminal  cases,  are  not  a  form  of 
social  work.  They  must  be  so  considered,  however,  in 
so  far  as  they  have  discretion  in  determining  how  the 
individual  convicted  criminals  shall  be  treated.  The 
police  force,  in  the  same  way,  as  the  common  agency 
for  preserving  order,  is  not  engaged  in  social  work; 
but  it  is  in  so  far  as  it  influences  individual  criminals 
and  prevents  or  encourages  the  committing  of  crimes. 

IMPROVEMENT    OF   LIVING    AND    WORKING    CONDITIONS 

The  first  three  groups  include  the  social  agencies 
which  provide  for  the  individual  representatives,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  three  great  social  problems — the  men 
and  women  and  children  who  are  in  want  of  the  neces- 
sities of  life,  who  are  sick  or  insane  or  physically  or 
mentally  defective,  who  have  broken  the  laws.  The 
fourth  is  composed  of  all  the  agencies  which  have  for 
their  object  the  diminution  of  these  social  problems — 
the  prevention,  to  put  it  negatively,  of  poverty,  disease, 
and  crime;  and  on  the  positive  side,  the  improvement 
of  the  conditions  under  which  people  live  and  work. 

There  is  of  course  a  sense  in  which  all  the  agencies 
have  this  object  in  view.  In  all  relief  work  the  ideal 
is  to  relieve  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  the  recurrence 
of  need  in  that  family  and  to  prepare  the  children  to 
take  a  creditable  part  in  the  life  of  their  generation. 
In  the  care  of  the  sick  the  ideal  is  not  only  to  cure 


76  Social  Work 

the  patient,  but  to  improve  his  chances  of  health  in 
the  future,  to  render  sources  of  infection  harmless, 
and  even  to  promote  hygienic  habits  in  other  members 
of  the  family.  In  the  treatment  of  criminals  the  ideal 
is  not  only  to  make  a  law-abiding  citizen  out  of  a 
law-breaker,  but  to  discourage  others  from  breaking 
the  laws.  All  this,  however — aside  from  the  fact 
that  the  ideal  is  not  everywhere  realized  in  practice — is 
but  incidental  to  the  main  purpose  of  taking  care  of 
unfortunate  individuals  who  for  one  reason  or  for 
another  have  to  be  taken  care  of.  Many  of  the  agencies 
in  the  first  three  groups  carry  on  also  certain  educa- 
tional and  preventive  work,  and  such  departments  of 
their  work  belong  also  in  the  fourth. 

This  kind  of  social  work  is  comparatively  new. 
Interest  in  the  causes  of  misery  comes  after  interest 
in  miserable,  unhappy  human  beings,  and  the  idea  that 
"prevention  is  better  than  cure"  is  relatively  Abstract 
^d  academic,  and  therefore  late  in  developing.  So 
strong  a  hold  has  it  taken  in  the  present  century,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  now  the  dominating  principle  in  Ameri- 
can social  work.  The  desire  to  raise  the  general  level 
of  life,  which  is  also  a  prominent  motive,  is  but  the 
positive  aspect  and  logical  consequence  of  this  principle. 

Some  of  the  work  in  this  group  is  in  the  nature 
of  a  direct  attack  on  one  or  another  of  the  three  great 
social  problems.  Disease,  especially,  has  been  the  object 
of  such  attacks.  There  is  much  work  for  the  preven- 
tion of  tuberculosis  and  of  venereal  disease,  for  the 


Classifications  of  Social  Work  77 

reduction  of  infant  mortality,  for  the  control  of  cancer, 
for  the  promotion  of  the  health  of  children  and  young 
people,  and  similar  purposes.  There  is  a  little — such  as 
that  done  by  protective  associations — which  is  directly 
intended  to  reduce  the  amount  of  crime.  There  may 
be  none  at  present  which  announces  as  its  express  pur- 
pose the  prevention  of  poverty;  but  that  is  one  of  the 
objects  in  almost  every  form  of  work  in  this  group. 

A  second  kind  of  work  in  this  group  consists  of 
efforts  to  abolish  conditions  recognized  as  undesirable. 
Certain  conditions — such  as  unsanitary  houses  and  fac- 
tories, work  for  wages  by  children,  night  work  by 
women,  unduly  long  hours  of  work  by  any  one,  con- 
gestion of  population,  inadequate  food,  and  so  on — 
have  been  suspected  of  a  tendency  to  produce  poverty, 
disease,  and  crime.  They  have  then  been  "isolated" 
and  studied,  like  germs  in  a  bacteriological  laboratory, 
and  the  suspicion  already  attaching  to  them  has  been 
substantiated.  This  has  led  to  the  organization  of 
agencies  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  eliminating  or 
at  least  diminishing  one  or  another  of  these  evils. 

Still  another  variety  among  the  efforts  to  prevent 
poverty  and  disease  and  crime  is  found  in  the  agencies 
which  provide  opportunities  for  recreation  and  social 
life,  which  seek  to  remove  special  social  or  economic 
disabilities  under  which  certain  groups  of  the  popula- 
tion sufifer,  and  which  undertake  to  improve  neigh- 
borhoods, both  in  their  physical  and  in  their  social 
character.     These  include  both  the  pioneer  agencies  in 


78  Social  Work 

preventive  work  and  some  of  the  newest  developments: 
social  settlements,  clubs  for  boys  and  girls,  village 
improvement  societies,  organizations  for  securing  parks 
and  playgrounds,  baths,  swimming  pools,  recreation 
piers,  etc. ;  Boy  Scouts  and  Camp  Fire  Girls ;  associa- 
tions for  advancing  the  interests  of  Indians  and  Negroes 
and  immigrants;  "community  service"  and  rural  social 
centers. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FAMILIES 


Foremost  among  the  means  for  securing  and  promot- 
ing individual  well-being  is  the  institution  of  the  family. 
Its  starting  point  is  marriage.  Its  essential  elements 
are  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife  and  that  of  parent 
and  child.  The  first  of  these  involves  a  civil  contract, 
of  which  the  laws  take  cognizance,*  and  also  a  recipro- 
cal moral  union,  ordinarily  made  the  more  sacred  and 
binding  by  religious  sanctions.  ^The  second  is  a 
natural,  biological  union,  of  which  also  the  laws  and 
customs  are  well  aware,  and  upon  which  society  mainly 
relies  for  protection  of  the  individual  in  helpless  in- 
fancy, for  nurture  and  training,  for  care  in  sickness 
and  misfortune,  and  for  maintenance  in  the  infirmity 
of  old  age. 

NORMAL  FUNCTION   OF  THE  FAMILY 

The   family  group  normally  has   its  own  physical 


*_This  is  not  to  ?nc:gcst  that  marriage  is  solely  or  essentially 
a  civil^  contract.  The  conception  of  marriage  as  a  sacrament, 
a  joining  together  in  an  indissoluble  union  not  to  be  ended 
by  voluntary  choice,  is  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  home, 
and    the    surest    guarantee   of   individual   welfare. 

79 


80  Social  Work 

dwelling-place,  its  home,  where  in  privacy  and  security 
the  more  intimate  family  life  goes  on.  Traditionally 
the  home  is  the  scene  of  the  main  activities  of  the  wife 
and  mother,  the  nursery  of  the  children,  and  the  resort 
during  their  leisure  hours  of  those  who  have  their 
daily  occupations  outside.  It  is  for  sleep,  for  meals, 
for  social  intercourse,  for  recreation,  for  worship,  for 
the  better  part  of  education,  for  affection;  and  family 
solidarity,  not  conscious  self  interest,  provides  the  social 
cement,  the  motives  for  whatever  efforts  and  sacrifices 
are  necessary  to  create  and  keep  the  home.  The 
family  could  never  have  been  deliberately  invented.  It 
could  not  be  perpetuated  if  it  were  necessary  to  do  it 
by  legislation,  by  renewed  individual  agreement,  by 
conscious  calculation  of  its  costs  and  rewards.  The 
family  persists  and  performs  its  beneficent  purpose 
because  it  is  a  social  institution,  deeply  embedded  in 
our  inherited  psychology,  slowly  changing  indeed  under 
the  influence  of  evolutionary  forces,  but  stronger  than 
any  artificial  human  contrivances,  because  correspond- 
ing to  the  deepest  needs  of  our  spiritual  and  physical 
nature,  to  necessities  which  overleap  the  mortal  life  of 
a  single  generation  and  unite  us  with  the  past  and  the 
future.  The  family  conserves  not  only  our  biological 
inheritance.  It  is  at  the  same  time  the  chief  depositary 
of  the  social  heritage  which  distinguishes  human  frorri 
lower  animal  life.  We  develop  means  of  supplementing 
the  family:  kindergarten,  playground,  school,  appren- 
ticeship, club,   governmental  services — but   it   remains 


Families  81 

to  the  family  to  start  and  to  make  the  largest  contribu- 
tion to  the  process  by  which  each  generation  stands 
upon  the  shoulders  of  those  that  have  preceded  it. 

WHEN   THE  FAMILY   FAILS 

The  family,  however,  in  practice  frequently  breaks 
down.  The  community  must  then  in  some  way  come 
to  the  rescue.  The  history  of  all  charity  from  the 
time  when  Moses  was  rescued  by  Pharaoh's  daughter 
and  restored  to  the  care  of  his  mother,  from  the  time 
when  the  code  of  Hammurabi  made  provision  for  the 
care  of  foster  children,  from  times  far  more  remote 
than  recorded  history  or  surviving  legend,  has  been 
one  of  such  substitution  for  natural  parental  or  marital 
or  filial  care.  It  is  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  the 
stranger  and  the  homeless,  who  have  always  aroused 
sympathy  and  given  the  objective  for  the  display  of 
the  altruistic  impulse.  It  is  so  still.  By  whatever  name 
they  may  be  called,  the  most  essential  agencies  of  social 
work  are  those  which  seek  to  conserve  family  life,  to 
strengthen  or  supplement  the  home,  to  give  children  in 
foster  homes  or  elsewhere  the  care  of  which  some 
tragic  misfortune  has  deprived  them  in  their  natural 
homes,  to  provide  the  income  necessary  to  family  life 
when  self-support  for  any  reason  fails,  to  instruct 
mothers  when  necessary  in  the  proper  care  of  their 
children,  to  restore  broken  homes,  to  discover  and  if 
possible    remove    the   destructive    influences — such   as 


82  Social  Work 

overcrowding,  filth,  sweated  labor  at  home,  strong 
drink,  infectious  disease,  excessively  long  hours  at 
work — which  interfere  with  normal  family  life  and  the 
reasonable  discharge  of  conjugal  and  parental  obliga- 
tions. The  institutions  which  exist  for  the  benefit  of 
those  individuals  who  have  no  home  or  who  need  care 
of  a  kind  which  cannot  well  be  supplied  in  a  home, 
only  emphasize  the  importance  of  conserving  family 
life  when  its  essential  elements  are  present. 

INSTITUTION  OR   HOME  SERVICE 

In  most  American  communities,  when  the  case  of 
an  individual  or  a  family  in  need  of  relief  presents 
itself,  there  is  frequently  a  choice  between  sending  the 
individual  or  one  or  more  members  of  the  family  to 
an  institution  and  giving  them  help  in  their  own  homes. 
The  advantages  of  institutional  care  as  a  disposition 
of  the  problem  are  obvious.  It  is  a  definite  solution. 
It  does  not  involve  the  continuing  and  harassing  un- 
certainty of  home  service.  Financial  and  legal  details 
are  swept  away.  The  mind  is  freed  for  the  next  case. 
There  is  an  air  of  finality,  of  adequacy,  about  the 
transaction.  This  feeling,  however,  is  pure  illusion. 
The  foundling  may  live,  and  if  so  the  decision  to  place 
it  in  the  foundling  asylum  may  have  an  influence  for 
good  or  ill  through  a  long  life.  The  orphan  may  be 
separated  from  brothers  and  sisters  or  other  relatives 
by  commitment;  may  be  put  in  the  way  of  securing  a 
particular  kind  of  training  or  education  which  may 


Families  83 

have  a  decisive  bearing  on  his  welfare.  The  friendless 
old  person  may  be  thrown  among  congenial  associates, 
or  may  be  subjected  to  excruciating  loneliness  and 
neglect.  The  children  temporarily  taken  from  their 
own  home  because  of  their  mother's  illness  or  father's 
desertion  may  be  permanently  injured  or  permanently 
benefited  by  their  experience  in  the  institution.  No 
decision  about  commitment  to  an  institution  can  be 
made  without  incurring  responsibility,  nor  made  wisely 
without  imagination  to  foresee  consequences  and  sym- 
pathy for  those  whose  fortunes  are  at  the  mercy  of 
these  events. 

Nevertheless  the  question  arises  and  the  decision 
must  be  made — either  by  the  social  workers  or  by  the 
person  concerned,  if  of  mature  years  and  sound  mind, 
or  if  this  is  not  the  case,  by  his  friends  or  those  who 
stand  in  some  relation  of  legal  or  moral  responsibility. 
In  a  reaction  against  the  actual  or  assumed  monotony 
and  rigidity  of  institutions,  social  workers  sometimes 
develop  an  institutionphobia,  a  hostility  to  the  institu- 
tional method  of  caring  for  those  who  are  dependent, 
which  is  as  unwarranted  as  it  is  unreasoning.  Institu- 
tions differ  nearly  as  much  as  domestic  hearths.  Their 
atmosphere  may  be  cheerful  and  their  comfort  often 
far  superior  to  any  which  can  be  secured  for  the  par- 
ticular person  in  a  family  home.  Whether  or  not  an 
institution  is  the  desirable  disposition  for  any  particular 
case  depends  upon  many  individual  circumstances.  They 
should  be  weighed  promptly,  and  the  decision  should 


84  Sodal  Work 

not  be  unduly  delayed  merely  from  lack  of  courage 
or  from  prejudice. 

AGENCIES    FOR    HOME    SERVICE 

The  churches,  through  pastoral  counsel,  the  labor 
of  deaconesses,  and  otherwise,  have  occupied  them- 
selves with  these  tasks  from  earliest  times.  The  state, 
through  local  overseers  of  the  poor,  county  commis- 
sioners, township  trustees,  municipal  departments  of 
public  welfare,  courts  of  domestic  relations,  and  other 
appropriate  local  organs,  has  accepted  the  responsibility 
for  dealing  with  the  grosser  cases  of  failure  in  the  fam- 
ily and  for  the  support  of  those  who  have  no  individual 
or  family  resources.  The  mutual  insurance  principle 
has  had  some  application,  through  trade  unions,  lodges, 
industrial  establishments,  etc.,  in  obviating  the  need  of 
applying  to  relief  agencies  when  sickness  or  unemploy- 
ment cuts  off  the  usual  family  income.  Employers 
frequently  look  after  the  families  of  their  employees. 

In  addition  to  all  such  means  of  strengthening  the 
family  or  taking  its  place,  there  have  been  from  very 
early  times  voluntary  charitable  associations  for  visit- 
ing and  ministering  to  the  needs  of  those  who  are  in 
trouble.  These  agencies,  which  have  a  bewildering 
variety  of  names  and  are  under  all  sorts  of  auspices, 
are  sometimes  said  to  be  engaged  in  organizing  charity ; 
sometimes  to  be  relieving  or  improving  the  condition 
of  the  poor;  sometimes  to  be  engaged  in  home  service, 
or  social  service,  or  even  public  service.     The  present 


Families  85 

tendency  is  to  think  of  them  as  occupied  with  family - 
welfare,  thus  emphasizing  the  fundamental  fact  that  the 
normal  reliance  is  on  the  family  to  safeguard  the  inter- 
ests of  its  own  members,  and  the  obviously  sound  pol- 
icy of  directing  social  effort,  when  this  is  required  and 
when  such  a  course  is  possible,  towards  bringing  or 
restoring  the  family  to  self-support. 

INSUFFICIENT    INCOME 

Social  work  directed  towards  family  welfare  con- 
cerns itself  then  in  the  first  instance  with  income.'  Are 
the  earnings  of  the  working  members  of  the  family 
sufficient  to  provide  for  the  elementary  needs  of  shelter, 
household  furnishings,  food,  clothing,  and  fuel?  Are 
the  members  of  the  family  well  nourished?  If  they 
are  homeless,  or  about  to  be  dispossessed,  how  may  they 
be  housed;  if  insufficiently  clad  and  hungry,  how  may 
they  be  fed  and  clothed  ?  Even  these  elementary  ques- 
tions are  not  always  to  be  answered  off  hand.  Lack 
of  income  or  inadequate  income  may  be  due  to  the 
shutting  down  of  industries  and  general  unemploy- 
ment. It  may  be  due  to  the  loss  of  a  job  by  the  indi- 
vidual worker  through  some  fault  of  his  own,  or  incom- 
petence, or  physical  unfitness.  In  the  latter  case  the 
social  worker  may  have  his  task  cut  out  for  many  a 
day.  To  overcome  the  fault,  incompetence,  or  physi- 
cal disability,  to  find  a  suitable  job,  to  encourage  the 
worker  to  keep  it  and  to  develop  his  capacity,  may  be 
a  very  tedious,  but  a  very  necessary,  contribution  to 


86  Social  Work 

the  family  welfare.  If  the  lack  of  income  is  due  to  an 
absolute  shrinking  of  employment,  so  that  there  are  no 
jobs  to  be  found  for  the  time  being,  it  may  mean 
removal  to  some  other  place  where  there  is  work  which 
the  idle  worker  can  do;  or  it  may  mean  tiding  over 
the  period  of  unemployment  with  relief,  perhaps  with 
some  kind  of  emergency  public  employment.  The 
problem  of  unemployment  which  is  due  to  seasonal 
irregularities  or  to  industrial  depression  is  essentially 
one  for  industry  rather  than  for  social  work,  Unem- 
plo3aTient  insurance,  administered  or  enforced  by  the 
state;  voluntary  or  enforced  compensation  for  loss  of 
employment  due  to  the  shutting  down  of  mills  or  mines, 
would  be  the  logical  remedy.  The  organization  of 
needed  public  work,  and  its  distribution  in  such  a  way 
as  to  take  up  the  slack  of  unused  labor,  would  also 
help.  Even  if  in  general  the  broad  problem  of  recurring 
unemployment  should  be  solved,  the  exceptional  case 
will  arise  with  which  social  work  will  still  have  to 
deal. 

Social  work  aims  to  find  suitable  employment  for 
the  individual,  educational  tasks  for  the  young,  light 
tasks  for  the  afflicted,  appropriate  tasks  in  each  case 
in  which  intervention  is  necessary;  but  it  also  aims 
to  bring  out  the  unused  abilities,  the  artistic,  creative 
impulse,  the  joy  and  satisfaction  of  willing  work;  for 
its  aim  is  to  contribute  to  the  good  life  of  the  individual 
and  to  family  welfare  as  a  means  to  that  end.  That 
the  only  end  in  view  is  to  make  the  family  self-support- 


families  87 

ing  is  a  narrow  and  inadequate  view  of  social  work. 
Self-support  may  be  accomplished  at  too  great  a  price. 
That  the  family  is  to  be  petted  and  enabled  by  some 
special  favor  to  live  with  less  than  the  average  amount 
of  downright  hard  work  and  foresight  is  equally  inad- 
missible. The  motives  which  influence  and  determine 
tlie  actions  of  families  under  the  care  of  charitable 
agencies  are  as  diverse  and  complex  as  those  which  in- 
fluence other  accidental  groups.  To  isolate  one  or  a 
few  motives  and  harp  upon  them  constantly  is  bad 
psychology.  The  social  worker  requires  imagination 
and  resourcefulness  and  a  knowledge  of  the  human 
mind.  Reflection  upon  the  reasons  for  his  own  choices 
and  for  the  decisions  of  his  own  friends,  superficially 
illogical  and  unaccountable  as  they  often  are,  will  be 
suggestive  as  to  the  range  of  motives  which  may  operate 
in  the  minds  of  the  less  fortunate.  Race  psychology, 
group  psychology,  and  neighborhood  psychology  are 
illuminating  in  social  work;  and  individual  differences, 
even  in  a  single  family,  need  to  be  considered. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  also  dangers  against 
which  psychologists  in  social  work — whether  trained 
or  instinctive — need  to  guard.  The  good  family  life 
requires  an  income,  and  the  earning  capacity  of  the 
workers  depends  only  in  part  on  their  physical  and 
mental  endowments.  It  depends  also  on  their  educa- 
tion, training,  and  opportunity.  If  the  economic  en- 
vironment is  right  the  individual  peculiarities  may 
disappear  as  obstacles  to  normal  living.     The  social 


88  Social  Work 

worker  may  have  to  try  to  change  the  individual,  but 
it  is  easier,  and  more  frequently  desirable,  to  take  the 
individual  as  he  is,  and  by  changing  his  occupation  or 
his  income  allow  his  individuality  to  redeem  its  ap- 
parent failure.    The  important  thing  is  not  only  to  dis- 
cover what  is  obviously  lacking,  but  also  to  find  what 
those  whom  we  are  trying  to  help  themselves  feel  to 
be  lacking;  what  are  the  obstacles  of  which  they  are 
aware;  what  is  it  which,  as  they  see  it,  would  enable 
them  to  attain  their  perhaps  modest  goal.     With  this 
knowledge  as  a  starting-point,  progress  may  be  initiated, 
and  perhaps  in  time  a  higher  goal  may   replace  the 
lower  or  more  immediate  one,  and  indeed  the  social 
worker  may  find  that  his  own  ideal,  however  clear  it 
may  have  been  in  his  mind,  is  after  all  less  worthy, 
less  an  expression  of  the  good  life,  than  that  which 
the  applicants  for  aid  have  themselves  cherished.     It 
will  take  a  very  human  and  open-minded  social  worker 
to  make  such  a  discovery  as  that. 

More  frequently  the  social  worker  will  have  to  be  in 
some  sense  a  protector  of  the  poor.  Between  the 
ideal  of  social  work — a  good  life  for  all — and  the 
property  ideal  of  maximum  money  profit,  there  is  eter- 
nal and  irreconcilable  conflict.  The  ideals  of  social 
work  are  those  also  of  religion,  of  education,  and  of 
good  citizenship.  The  social  worker  is  bound  by  his 
ideal  of  individual  and  family  well-being  not  to  be  a 
party  to  the  exploitation  of  any  worker  for  the  em- 
ployer's or  the  stockholder's  profit.     In  the  individual 


Families  89 

case  he  must  stand  for  a  living  wage,  for  reasonable 
hours,  for  protection  of  life  and  limb,  for  a  secure 
income,  for  leisure  to  discharge  family  and  civic  duties. 
He  must  of  course  stand  equally  for  honest  and  effi- 
cient work,  for  an  interest  in  the  job,  whatever  it  may 
be,  so  that  the  worker  may  get  from  it  the  satisfaction 
appropriate  to  the  worker,  and  his  family  the  income 
essential  to  family  welfare.  Hard  and  continuous 
work  is  not  necessarily  an  evil,  if  there  is  sufficient 
motive  and  a  reasonable  return. 

HEALTH  :      PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  EXAMINATION 

The  difficulty  may  not  be  chiefly  one  of  inadequate 
income.  Perhaps  it  is  the  health  of  one  or  more 
members  of  the  family  that  is  in  question.  A  physical 
examination  of  all  who  are  ill  or  suspected  of  being  so, 
even  of  those  who  are  w^ell,  in  the  interest  of  their 
remaining  so,  has  now  become  an  almost  routine  feature 
of  social  work  in  families — at  any  rate  in  theory.  The 
multiplication  of  clinics,  health  centers,  and  public 
health  services  has  facilitated  this  practice.  Insurance 
companies  have  found  it  good  social  policy  to  provide 
physical  examinations  and  nursing  service  for  their 
policy  holders.  Social  workers  may  find  some  mem- 
ber of  the  family  in  need  of  an  operation  or  of  sana- 
torium care.  They  are  often  in  position  to  persuade 
a  reluctant  invalid  to  accept  an  offer  of  hospital  treat- 
ment, or  to  give  up  work  for  a  time  in  order  to  profit 
by  treatment  at  home.    Since  the  welfare  of  the  family 


90  Social  Work 

as  a  whole  is  the  aim  in  view,  the  sdcial  worker  can 
sometimes  use  an  offer  of  material  aid  as  a  means  of 
inducing  desirable  action,  such  as  going  to  a  hospital, 
separating  a  tuberculous  patient  from  other  members 
of  the  family  at  night,  wearing  a  needed  brace,  or  giving 
suitable  kind  of  food  to  a  child.  The  rent  may  be 
paid  on  condition  of  removal  to  a  more  sanitary  dwell- 
ing. Clothing  may  be  furnished  on  condition  of  send- 
ing children  to  school  regularly.  Of  course  in  extreme 
cases  more  severe  measures  may  be  necessary.  The 
Health  Department  may  force  the  removal  of  one  ill 
with  contagious  disease,  or  the  cleaning  up  of  rooms 
which  are  so  offensive  as  to  be  a  nuisance.  The  attend- 
ance officer  may  summon  a  recalcitrant  parent  to  court. 
But  for  every  such  disciplinary  case  there  are  scores 
calling  not  for  threats  or  coercion  but  for  explanation, 
persuasion,  moral  influence,  and  opportunity. 

The  imperative  need,  from  the  standpoint  of  social 
work,  is  that  the  sick  shall  have  medical  or  surgical, 
convalescent  or  preventive,  care,  according  to  their 
needs,  and  that  the  needs  shall  be  discovered  and  ap- 
preciated in  time.  Many  suffer  from  nervous,  digestive, 
and  other  ailments,  without  timely  and  therefore  effec- 
tive relief.  Many  resort  to  patent  medicines  or  popular 
remedies  because  they  cannot  afford  or  do  not  know  the 
value  of  more  radical  and  professional  treatment.  Many 
keep  on  working  at  exacting  and  injurious  occupations 
because  they  have  no  alternative.  They  cannot  afford 
to  quit  altogether,  and  they  must  do  that  or  go  on  in 


Families  91 

the  usual  way.  Many  are  suffering  from  some  unnec- 
essary strain  of  eyesight,  or  from  fiat-foot,  or  from 
improper  diet,  merely  from  lack  of  the  most  elementary 
and  the  most  accessible  information. 

Social  workers  have  the  opportunity  to  discover 
such  instances,  and  to  deal  with  them  as  aspects  of 
family  welfare.  It  is  in  line  with  their  usual  procedure 
to  advise  and  press  for  a  physical  and  mental  examina- 
tion whenever  they  have  reason  to  think  that  it  would 
be  advantageous.  By  hypothesis  there  is  something 
awry  in  the  homes  which  they  visit.  The  social  worker 
is  there  because  the  family  is  in  some  sort  of  difficulty 
and  has  invited  them — or  allowed  them — to  come  and 
help.  They  are  there  to  find  out  what  is  wrong. 
They  are  there  for  the  kind  of  service  which  the  situa- 
tion, in  the  home  requires.  Therefore  they  may  havs 
to  find  a  job  or  adjust  a  worker  better  to  his  work 
or  the  work  to  the  worker,  to  furnish  money  to  pay 
the  rent,  to  watch  over  an  invalid  or  a  probationer  or 
one  tempted  to  crime,  to  get  children  into  school,  with 
or  without  the  help  of  an  attendance  officer,  or  an 
offender  into  court,  with  or  without  the  help  of  a 
policeman  or  district  attorney  or  judge. 

VARIED    AND    COMPLICATED    TASKS 

If  there  is  no  question  of  securing  institutional  care, 
or  of  supplementing  income,  or  of  adjustment  to 
occupation,  or  of  improving  the  health,  there  may 
still  be   some  special   service  required,   such  as   legal 


92  Social  Work 

aid,  the  settlement  of  some  claim  or  controversy,  find- 
ing an  absent  member  of  the  family,  reconciling- 
estranged  relatives,  obtaining  a  loan  on  security,  or 
selling  some  property  to  solve  a  temporary  financial 
difficulty.  Imprisonment  for  crime,  desertion,  intem- 
perance or  drug  addiction,  waywardness  of  a  daughter 
or  bad  companions  of  a  boy,  may  create  a  problem  in 
which  the  family  needs  help.  How  to  get  whole- 
some and  congenial  recreation  for  the  young  may  be 
as  serious  and  as  difficult  as  how  to  get  remunerative 
and  appropriate  work  for  the  father.  Instruction  of 
housewives  in  cooking  and  marketing,  in  the  making 
or  mending  of  clothes,  in  the  furnishing  of  the  home, 
in  the  care  of  children,  opens  an  illimitable  field  of 
home  service.  Budgeting  of  income  and  expenditure, 
which  is  a  mark  of  intelligent  household  management 
in  any  economic  class,  has  become  a  frequent  feature 
of  the  social  treatment  of  dependent  families.  The  end 
of  it  all  is  a  good  life,  and  the  means  are  as  varied  as 
the  elements,  material  and  spiritual,  which  enter  into 
this  all-inclusive  end. 

VOLUNTEER    SERVICE 

Among  all  the  varieties  of  social  work,  the  care  of 
dependent  families  in  their  homes  has  given  the  largest 
and  most  fruitful  scope  to  volunteer  service.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  charity  organization  movement  one 
of  the  most  important  societies,  the  Boston  Associated 
Charities,  grew  out  of  an  existing  society  for  friendly 


Families  93 

visiting.  The  use  of  volunteers,  both  as  friendly  visi-  • 
tors  and  as  members  of  working  committees,  has  always 
been  a  conspicuous  feature  of  organized  charity.  In 
some  societies  the  establishment  of  permanent  friendly 
relations  between  families  who  have  been  in  need  and 
friendly  visitors  able  to  help  them  has  been  accepted 
as  a  principal  end  to  be  attained.  In  others  volunteers 
are  used  to  a  more  limited  extent,  for  such  specific 
purposes  as  they  can  best  accomplish,  or  to  the  extent 
to  which  they  may  be  available.  Settlements,  churches, 
and  even  public  welfare  departments,  depend  upon  vol- 
unteers, and  there  are  no  limits  to  the  extent  to  which 
the  useful  influence  of  the  agencies  for  home  service 
may  be  enlarged  in  this  way,  except  their  own  capacity 
for  enlisting,  retaining,  and  directing  such  volunteer 
service,  and  the  readiness  of  volunteers  to  enlist  and 
to  prepare  themselves  for  practical  usefulness. 

MATERIAL  RELIEF 

The  place  of  "material  relief" — groceries,  fuel,  cloth- 
ing, and  money — as  contrasted  with  advice  and  "per- 
sonal service"  in  those  forms  of  social  work  which 
are  related  to  family  welfare,  has  been  much  discussed, 
sometimes  over-emphasized  and  sometimes  underesti- 
mated. The  giving  of  relief  may  easily  become  a 
substitute  for  the  more  difficult  and  more  beneficial 
process  of  developing  self  help.  It  may  take  the  place 
inadvisedly  of  help  which  should  come  from  a  relative 


94  Social  Work 

or  former  employer  or  6ther  "personal  source."  There 
may  be  instances  in  which  a  lazy  or  improvident  per- 
son and  his  family  should  be  allowed  to  "go  without" 
in  order  that  he  may  learn  to  the  limit  what  is  the 
natural  consequence  of  improvidence  and  laziness.  Re- 
lief funds  may  be  direct  incentives  to  these  and  other 
vices,  like  intemperance,  family  desertion,  such  care- 
less and  inefficient  work  as  results  in  losing  the  job. 
Not  many  of  those  who  have  had  first-hand  contact 
with  poverty  will  draw  from  these  demonstrable  dan- 
gers the  inference  which  occasionally  finds  academic 
expression — that  it  would  be  better  to  abolish  all  relief 
funds.  Chalmers,  in  his  Glasgow  parish  a  century  ago, 
accomplished  this,  believing  that  institutional  relief 
"dried  up  the  natural  springs  of  human  benevolence" ; 
but  he  developed  these  natural  springs  of  benevolence 
and  organized  his  parishioners  as  perhaps  only  a  genius 
would  have  been  able  to  do.  For  good  or  ill  human 
beings  have  left  permanently  behind  the  stage  of  civil- 
ization in  which  the  old,  the  weak,  the  ill,  the  inefficient, 
can  be  cast  aside  to  die  from  exposure  and  starvation. 
An  evolutionary  conception  which  ignores  sympathy 
simply  would  not  survive.  Group  conflict  against  nat- 
ural obstacles  tends  to  replace  individual  conflicts.  Re- 
lief funds  are  an  essential  feature  of  group  organiza- 
tion. We  must  learn  how  to  use  material  relief  with 
a  minimum  of  encouragement  to  laziness,  thriftlessnes.s 
and  other  undesirable  traits,  recognizing  that  the  risk 
of  some  such  injury  is  always  present.     There  is  no 


Families  95 

benefit — not  even  education — which  does  not  carry  its 
dangers. 

Material  rehef,  of  an  appropriate  kind,  in  adequate 
amount,  at  the  right  time,  in  pursuance  of  a  definite 
plan  of  social  treatment,  changed  as  developing  cir- 
cumstances require,  discontinued  at  the  earliest  moment 
when  it  has  become  unnecessary,  obtained  from  per- 
sonal sources  when  practicable,  regarded  as  a  loan 
to  be  replaced  by  the  beneficiary  when  this  would  be 
reasonable — adjusted,  in  short,  to  the  needs  of  the 
beneficiaries  and  not  to  the  amount  which  happens  to 
be  on  deposit  in  the  fund  from  which  it  is  drawn — 
is  a  necessary  instrument,  an  indispensable  resource, 
of  social  work.  It  is  not  more  dangerous  than  drugs 
in  the  hands  of  the  physicians,  books  in  the  hands  of 
the  teacher,  the  hope  of  salvation  on  the  lips  of  the 
evangelist. 

RELIEF   IN    DISASTERS 

Just  as  unforeseen  misfortunes  occasionally  over- 
take individuals  and  families,  so  an  entire  community 
may  be  overwhelmed  by  a  disaster  which  presents  a 
relief  problem  of  an  extraordinary  kind.  War,  earth- 
quake, flood,  fire,  famine,  or  pestilence  may  temporarily 
bring  to  dependence  those  who  have  been  far  from 
anticipating  any  such  experience.  Relief  in  such  an 
emergency,  except  for  the  scale  on  which  food,  clothing, 
shelter,  or  medicines  may  have  to  be  provided,  involves 
principles   familiar  in  all   social  work.     Registration, 


96  Social  Work 

discrimination,  co-operation,  are  as  imperative  as  in  any 
other  good  relief  work.  The  rehabiHtation  of  families, 
and  eventually  of  the  community,  involves  these  factors 
and  others  also  within  the  ordinary  experience  of  social 
workers.  An  adequate  plan  based  on  accurate  knowl- 
edge and  resources  sufficient  to  carry  it  through  are 
the  prime  essentials. 

A  channel  for  the  organization  of  emergency  and 
rehabilitation  relief  in  disasters  is  provided  in  the  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross,  and  through  this  agency  humanitarian 
aid  may  be  extended  to  foreign  countries  when  the  needs 
are  sufficient  to  justify  it.  In  Europe  and  Asia  post- 
war relief  problems  have  required  the  continuance  of 
a  Relief  Administration  created  especially  for  this 
purpose,  and  also  of  several  special  relief  funds,  such  as 
those  for  relief  in  the  Near  East,  in  China,  in 
Ireland,  and  in  Russia.  The  ideal  would  be  an  Inter- 
national Red  Cross  so  neutral,  humanitarian,  and  well- 
supported  that  even  for  disasters  in  foreign  countries 
such  special  relief  funds  would  not  be  required. 

EXTENSION   OF    HOME   SERVICE 

Some  of  the  difficulties  which  social  workers  en- 
counter in  the  families  under  their  care  occur  also  in 
the  homes  of  the  self-supporting,  even  of  the  most 
prosperous.  Embarrassment  in  caring  for  an  incom- 
petent, nervous,  inebriate,  narcotic,  feeble-minded,  or 
insane  relative  may  arise  not  from  lack  of  financial 


Families  97 

resources  but  from  lack  of  knowledge.    Should  he  be 
kept  at  home  or  sent  to  an  institution?    If  the  former, 
should  a  specialist  be  engaged;  and  if  the  latter,  to 
what  institution  and  on  what  conditions?    What  occu- 
pation, if  any,  is  best  for  him?    How  may  his  recovery 
be  promoted,  or  at  what  point  shall  that  be  assumed 
to  be  out  of  the  question?     Numerous  and  geographi- 
cally well  distributed  centers  of  advice  and  informa- 
tion, to  which  people  might  come  for  consultation  on 
such  questions,  are  desirable,   and — like  a  hospital — 
they  might  charge  those  who  are  able  to  pay  for  their 
social   treatment.      Lawyers,    family   physicians,    and 
clergymen  have  been  consulted  traditionally  on  such 
personal  and  domestic  problems,  and  it  is  conceivable 
that  social  workers  might  develop  a  similar  practice. 
If  they  follow  the  path  of  the  medical  and  legal  pro- 
fessions in  making  this  practice  to  any  extent  lucrative 
they  would  then  have  clients — a  term  which  has  recently 
been  somewhat  inaptly  applied  generally  to  those  who 
are  under  the  care  of  the  charitable  societies.     If  the 
service  is  unpaid  and  incidental — like  that  of  a  pastor, 
a  politician,  or  a  neighbor — then,  even  though  it  may 
be  very  sound  and  useful,  it  would  seem  better  not  to 
describe  the  relation  by  a  term  so  misleading.    Clientage 
in  ancient  Rome  was  indeed  a  very  different  relation 
from  that  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  the  legal  pro- 
fession, but  social  work  would  hardly  wish  to  revive 
such  a  wretched  and  degrading  conception  as  that  de- 
scribed by  Martial  in  the  early  Empire : 


98  Social  Work 

"Gatherings  of  idlers,  sycophants,  and  spend- 
thrifts, at  the  levees  and  public  appearances  of 
those  whom,  in  their  fawning  servility,  they  ad- 
dressed as  lords  and  masters,  but  whom  they 
abused  behind  their  backs  as  close-fisted  upstarts — 
and  all  for  the  sake  of  the  sportida,  the  daily  dole 
of  a  dinner,  or  for  a  few  pence  wherewith  to 
procure  one." 

The  probability  is  that  the  prosperous  and  well-to- 
do  will  continue  to  solve  their  own  family  problems, 
with  the  advice  of  friends  and  of  such  business,  legal, 
and  medical  counsel  as  they  may  think  it  necessary  to 
obtain;  and  that  the  social  agencies  will  not  greatly 
develop  their  earnings  in  this  direction.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  social  work  will  continue  to  find  its  field 
of  usefulness  mainly  where  the  income  is  inadequate, 
the  earning  power  impaired  by  ill  health  or  misfortune 
or  misconduct  and  not  replaced  by  inherited  wealth 
or  otherwise.  Not  by  unloading  individual  responsi- 
bilities on  social  agencies  or  on  a  new  professional 
group  are  we  to  make  progress;  but  by  an  education 
which  will  increasingly  prepare  individuals  to  solve 
their  own  problems,  by  the  increase  of  earning  power, 
by  the  lessening  of  accidents  and  the  removal  of  the 
social  dangers  to  life  and  health,  by  the  protection  of 
standards  of  living,  by  constantly  increasing  in  such 
ways  the  proportion  of  those  who,  with  health  and  in- 
come reasonably  assured,  can  take  care  of  themselves. 


CHAPTER    VII 
DEPENDENT  ADULTS 


The  infirmity  of  old  age  as  a  social  problem  is  not 
yet  taken  as  seriously  in  America  as  it  deserves.  More 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  almshouse  as  it  now 
is,  throughout  the  country,  will  contribute  to  an 
understanding  of  its  importance.  But  it  will  do  more. 
A  visit  to  almost  any  almshouse  will  be  a  profitable 
introduction  to  social  work.  However  attractive  its 
exterior,  and  however  well  administered  internally,  it 
will  inevitably  present  a  view  of  the  human  wreckage 
of  our  social  and  industrial  system  not  to  be  obtained 
elsewhere.  It  will  speak  eloquently  of  the  failure  of 
preventive  medicine,  the  failure  of  education,  the 
failure  of  marriage,  the  failure  of  filial  obHgation,  the 
failure  of  employers,  the  failure  of  religion  and  mor- 
ality. These  are  they  for  whom  nothing  remains  ex- 
cept the  kindness  of  strangers,  the  impersonal  charity 
of  the  tax-payer,  the  patient  waiting  for  the  final  release, 
the  hope  and  consolation  of  the  chaplain's  ministrations. 

THE   ALMSHOUSE 

In  the  greater  part  of  the  country,  and  especially  in 

99 


100  Social  Work 

the  more  populous  states  of  the  east  and  north,  the 
almshouse  has  long  been  the  ultimate  refuge  of  those 
who  have  no  other  resource.  Into  it  have  come  the 
infirm  and  friendless,  the  blind,  the  paralytic,  the 
epileptic,  the  mentally  defective,  the  senile  and  those 
who  are  afflicted  by  chronic  nervous  ailments,  when 
these  conditions  result  in  complete  dependence  and  there 
are  no  relatives  or  private  agencies  to  offer  care.  Even 
if  there  are  relatives  or  friends  the  affliction  may  be  so 
disabling,  or  the  feeling  of  obligation  on  the  part  of 
relatives  so  slight,  that  application  is  made  for  alms- 
house care  and  the  officials  may  feel  warranted  in 
giving  it. 

The  undifferentiated  almshouse  of  two  generations 
ago  had  also  insane  patients,  mothers  in  child-birth, 
orphans  and  half -orphans,  hospital  patients  for  surgical 
operations  and  in  acute  fevers,  victims  of  contagious 
diseases,  and  even  able-bodied  men  and  women  who 
preferred  idleness  at  public  expense  to  working  for  a 
living.  The  almshouse  is  still  often  undifferentiated, 
and  exceptional  instances  of  any  of  these  classes  of 
inmates  may  still  be  found.  Generally  speaking,  how- 
ever, vagrants  are  now  sent  to  correctional  institutions 
rather  than  to  the  almshouse,  or  at  most  receive  tem- 
porary lodging,  with  or  without  something  to  eat,  in 
a  temporary  shelter  or  police  station.  Surgical  opera- 
tions and  the  care  of  the  acutely  sick  have  been  assumed 
by  hospitals,  although  one  or  more  hospital  wards  are 
still  to  be  found  in  most  almshouses,  and  the  present 


Dependent  Adults  101 

difference  between  hospital  patients  and  almshouse  in- 
mates is  not  so  much  one  of  the  difference  between  the 
sick  and  the  able-bodied  as  it  is  that  between  acute 
illness  and  chronic  invalidity.  Many  children  are  still 
born  in  almshouses,  notwithstanding  the  great  increase 
in  special  lying-in  hospitals;  and  chronic  insane  are 
still  to  be  found  in  them,  notwithstanding  the  general 
assumption  of  the  care  of  the  insane  by  state  hospitals 
established  for  that  purpose.  It  is  now  forbidden  by 
law  in  many  states  to  keep  children  over  two  years 
of  age  in  an  almshouse ;  and  even  the  mentally  defective 
and  epileptic  and  consumptives — the  latest  groups  to 
receive  separate  special  care — are  now  in  principle,  al- 
though unfortunately  not  yet  in  practice  on  any  very 
large  scale  proportionately  to  their  numbers,  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  suitable  care  in  colonies  or  institutions 
especially  planned  to  meet  their  needs. 

The  removal  of  insane,  epileptic,  children,  vagrants, 
and  acutely  ill,  has  affected,  but  has  not  after  all  funda- 
mentally changed,  the  almshouse.  Nor  has  the  substi- 
tution of  other  designations — such  as  county  infirmary 
or  home  for  aged  and  infirm — made  as  much  difference 
as  those  who  attach  importance  to  names  might  expect. 
The  almshouse  may  be  changed  for  the  better  when  a 
capable  and  humane  superintendent  or  matron  is  in 
charge  of  it,  with  an  appropriation  sufficient  to  keep  it 
comfortable,  sanitary,  and  attractive,  and  with  a  policy 
which  controls  admission  and  discharge  in  accordance 
with  the  best  interests  of  candidates  and  their  relatives 


102  Social  Work 

and  in  accordance  with  the  best  interests  of  tax  payers 
and  the  community.  These  interests  are  not  incom- 
patible. Numbers  should  not  be  kept  down  by  niggard- 
liness. It  is  by  investigation,  visits  to  relatives,  former 
employers,  neighbors,  friends,  ingenuity  in  utilizing 
outside  resources  when  they  exist,  in  discovering  suit- 
able employment  w-hen  there  is  any  to  be  found,  in 
transferring  to  some  other  institution  when  it  would 
be  advantageous,  in  the  direct  personal  influence  of 
the  social  worker  in  favor  of  any  rational  alternative, 
that  any  necessary  deterrent  influences  may  be  applied. 
The  humane  and  enlightened  administration  which 
would  be  known  by  such  measures  as  these  is  unfor- 
tunately very  rare.  The  county  almshouse,  like  the 
county  jail  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  in  a  later 
chapter,  suffers  from  too  little  publicity.  County  com- 
missioners and  the  officials  responsible  to  them  receive 
too  little  credit  for  good  work,  too  little  public  censure 
for  neglect. 

The  modern  well-administered  county  home  for  aged 
and  infirm  will  still  have  need  of  special  attention  on 
the  part  of  public-spirited  and  kind-hearted  citizens, 
however  clean  and  sanitary  and  comfortable  it  may  be; 
however  many  of  the  groups  which  w^ere  once  sheltered 
in  it  have  gone  to  better,  more  specialized  institutions. 
After  all  removals  from  it  and  all  reforms  within  it, 
it  remains  a  relatively  undifferentiated,  ultimate  refuge 
for  many  kinds  of  people — all  who  are  not  yet  touched 
by  the  many  generous  schemes  for  prevention,  by  the 


Dependent  Adults  103 

special  provision  in  private  institutions,  by  allowances 
or  pensions.  It  is  still  the  shelter  of  the  most  pathetic 
and  most  appealing  of  all  public  charges.  The  feeble 
old  men  and  women,  the  chronic  invalids,  querulous  * 
and  crotchety  though  they  may  be,  outliving  their  use- 
fulness, surviving  their  children  and  grand-children, 
cherishing  in  their  infirmities  the  memory  of  their 
active  years,  are  yet  entitled  because  of  their  need  to 
sympathy,  to  the  best  of  physical  care,  to  the  social 
pleasures  which  they  can  enjoy.  And  the  fact  is  that 
they  may  not  be  more,  but  less  trying,  quarrelsome, 
and  unreasonable  than  groups  of  individuals  collected 
together  in  other  institutions,  such  as  hotels  or  col- 
leges or  factories.  They  are  apt  to  be  curiously  patient, 
tolerant,  often  interesting.  Those  whose  infirmities 
are  so  great,  whose  friends  are  so  few,  whose  mis- 
fortunes are  so  overwhelming,  that  they  come  to  this 
refuge,  are  not  beyond  the  need  for  respect  and  affec- 
tion. They  are  not  beyond  the  capacity  to  respond 
to  them.  Some  of  them  should  be  helped  to  go  else- 
where. Some  of  them  should  have  little  luxuries  or 
comforts,  suggested  by  their  particular  infirmities  or 
their  earlier  lives.  All  of  them  should  have  the  oppor-' 
tunity  to  make  on  the  public  mind  the  impression  which 
a  knowledge  of  their  collective  life  would  make.  Per- 
haps they  should  be  cared  for  dififerently.  Perhaps 
old-age  pensions  would  be  a  more  humane  and  reason- 
able method  of  supporting  them.  Probably  this  is  not 
the  case,  for  there  are  probably  relatively  few  who  could 


104  Sodal  Work 

live  as  comfortably  at  home,  even  with  an  allowance 
to  pay  for  their  food  and  rent.  In  other  words,  most 
of  them  probably  need  personal  service  as  well  as  main- 
tenance; but  this  cannot  be  taken  for  granted. 

PRIVATE   PIOMES   FOR  THE   AGED 

Homeless  old  age  has  frequently  in  the  past  century 
made  a  strong  appeal  to  private  benevolence;  with  the 
result  that  there  are  in  New  York  City  some  sixty 
private  homes  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  and  in  the 
entire  country  about  eight  hundred.  They  are  not 
exclusively  for  the  poor.  Some  of  their  guests  pay 
from  savings  the  full  cost  of  their  maintenance,  and 
others  are  paid  for  by  relatives.  Generally,  however, 
what  is  paid  by  or  on  behalf  of  candidates  for  admission 
covers  only  a  small  part  of  the  expense,  and  the  large 
majority  of  the  beneficiaries  are  quite  without  means. 
Many  of  these  homes  are  supported  by  churches,  and 
some  of  these  limit  admission  to  communicants  of  a 
particular  religious  faith.  One  in  New  York,  for 
example,  admits  only  those  who  have  been  members  of 
a  particular  religious  denomination  for  ten  years  and 
of  some  city  church  of  that  denomination  for  five 
years. 

Their  purpose,  generally  speaking,  is  to  care  for 
those  for  whom  it  would  be  a  special  hardship  to  go 
to  the  almshouse.  One  for  "gentlewomen"  expressly 
excludes  those  who  have  lived  as  servants.     Another, 


Dependent  Adults  105 

defining  more  explicitly  than  usual  a  policy  which  is 
generally  enforced  without  such  definite  rules,  denies 
admission  to  those  suffering  from  infectious  diseases,  • 
cancer,  or  urinary  incontinency ;  and  to  consumptives,  ' 
epileptics,  idiots,  blind  persons,  paralytics,  helpless  crip- 
ples, and  those  requiring  constant  personal  attendance. 
Such  provisions  as  these  indicate  the  general  difference 
between  the  private  homes  and  the  almshouse  which 
must  take  those  who  cannot  find  care  elsewhere;  al- 
though of  course  even  in  the  almshouse   contagious 
diseases  are  usually  treated  in  separate  hospitals  or 
wards,  and  there  is  often  further  classification.     On 
the  other  hand,  there  are  private  institutions  intended 
especially  for  consumptives,  incurable  cripples,  blind, 
and  other  classes  not  usually  cared  for  in  homes  for  the 
aged  and  infirm ;  but  the  tendency  is  for  these  heavier  ! 
burdens  to  be  transferred  to  the  state,  and  for  private 
charity  to  direct  its  efforts  either  to  home  service  or 
to  such  institutional  activities  as  are  likely  to  change 
the  condition  of  the  beneficiaries.    The  chief  exceptions 
are  the  church  homes  for  the  more  refined  and  respecta- 
ble, who  have  been  accustomed  to  the  comforts  of  life 
and  who  are  bound  by  some  ties  of  religious  or  other 
association  to   the   communities   which   contribute   to 
their  support ;  and  the  homes  for  old  soldiers,  in  which 
the  national  government  or  the  states  maintain  war 
veterans   in  comfort   and   respect,   even   though  their 
present  infirmities  may  have  little  connection  with  any 
injuries  or  hardship  of  such  service. 


\ 


106  Social  Work 


OLD  AGE  DEPENDENCE 

Familiarity  with  the  private  homes  for  the  aged,  and 
especially  with  their  frequently  very  long  waiting  lists, 
strengthens  the  impression  made  by  the  almshouse  that 
old-age  dependence  has  not  yet  received  the  attention 
which  its  importance  warrants.  The  American  ideal 
has  been  to  die  in  harness ;  or  to  lay  by  something  for 
old  age ;  or  to  have  a  share  in  the  prosperity  of  children 
or  grand-children.  That  there  should  normally  be 
need  for  some  kind  of  provision  by  the  community 
for  the  aged,  as  there  is  for  the  orphan,  the  sick,  and 
the  insane,  is  an  idea  much  more  familiar  in  other 
countries  than  among  us.  Elsewhere  it  has  led  to 
systems  of  old-age  pensions,  supplementing  public  and 
private  institutions  for  those  who  have  no  one  to  care 
for  them  at  home  and  who  cannot  care  for  themselves, 
so  that  a  pension  would  be  useless.  High  wages  have 
made  these  less  necessary  in  the  United  States;  but  a 
high  standard  of  living  presses  hard  against  the  incomes 
of  the  working  families,  even  when  wages  are  high. 
Some  industrial  establishments  have  created  retiring 
and  invalidity  pension  systems,  but  these  are  not  likely 
to  care  for  any  very  large  number  of  the  aged. 

The  conclusion  seems  inevitable  that  veterans  of 
industry  must  be  cared  for  when  necessary  either  at 
the  expense  of  tax  payers  or  at  the  expense  of  industry, 
on  a  plan  which  affords  universality  and  security.  In- 
stitutions will  be  necessary  for  those  who  cannot  live 


Dependent  Adults  107 

at  home  or  at  board,  and  pensions  for  those  who  can. 
The  institutions  might  result  from  a  further  differentia- 
tion of  the  almshouse  or  from  a  development  of  the 
existing  private  homes  for  the  aged.  Whether  the 
provision  for  old  age  should  be  contributory — i.  e., 
whether  prospective  beneficiaries  should  be  required  to 
meet  from  their  wages  in  advance  a  part  of  the  ex- 
pense, or  whether  it  should  be  met  entirely  by  the 
employing  corporations  and  indirectly  by  their  cus- 
tomers— is  a  question  which  has  respectable  arguments 
on  both  sides.  Society  has  no  escape  from  the  burden 
of  old-age  dependence.  The  amount  of  it  may  be  re- 
duced by  such  improvements  in  health  and  vigor  as 
prolong  the  working  age,  by  the  encouragement  of 
thrift  and  foresight,  by  increasing  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility on  the  part  of  children  or  collateral  relatives. 
It  may  be  thrown  back  heartlessly  on  the  aged  and 
infirm,  so  that  the  burden  is  translated  into  the  suffer- 
ing and  hardships  of  individuals.  It  may  be  met  by 
general  taxation.  It  may  be  met  in  part  by  private 
generosity.  It  may  be  met  by  social  action  which 
ensures  a  pension  or  home  when  necessary,  safeguard- 
ing against  abuse  by  investigation,  and  putting  the  cost 
on  the  undivided  surplus  of  the  industry  in  which  the 
worker  has  been  employed.  All  these  alternatives  need 
searching  study  and  analysis.  The  most  favorable 
condition  for  an  enlightened  and  humane  policy  lies 
in  the  increase  in  the  number  of  young  and  middle-aged 
citizens  who  have  some  knowledge  of  the  problem  of 


108  Social  Work 

old  age  as  it  shows  itself  in  the  county  or  township 
almshouse,  in  the  private  homes  for  the  aged  and  infirm, 
and  in  the  daily  lives  of  those  who  are  struggling 
against  losing  odds  to  keep  out  of  both. 

TEMPORARY    SHELTER 

In  the  open  country  men  who  are  out  of  money  and 
employment  may  usually  find  shelter  for  a  night  either 
as  a  courtesy  or  in  return  for  some  odd  job  on  which 
the  farmer  can  use  the  extra  help.  At  worst  a  barn 
loft  or  a  hay-stack  will  serve.  In  towns  and  cities  the 
homeless  man  may  have  to  walk  the  streets  or  sleep 
on  a  park  bench.  In  the  cities  also  there  are  odd  jobs, 
but  they  are  generally  paid  for  in  money,  and  they 
go  to  the  alert  and  experienced  street  waif  rather  than 
to  the  stranger  who  finds  himself  homeless  and  jobless. 
Charitable  societies  and  missions  may  furnish  tickets 
for  meals  and  lodgings  at  a  lodging  house,  or  the  lodger 
may  be  so  fortunate  as  to  get  credit  for  the  night 
or  may  be  able  to  make  himself  useful  about  a  low- 
priced  hotel  in  return  for  his  keep  until  something 
better  turns  up.  But  in  times  of  depression  and  unem- 
ployment all  these  resources  may  fail,  and  there  may 
be  no  alternative  to  the  furnishing  of  free  shelter  and 
meals  to  those  who  cannot  find  work.  The  accommoda- 
tions provided  in  mission  shelters  are  frequently  very 
inadequate,  and  when  offered  in  return  for  what  may 
be  hypocritical  "testimony"  they  represent  about  the 
lowest  known  type  of  social  work. 


Dependent  Adults  109 

Sometimes  police  stations  are  used  as  lodgings  for 
the  homeless,  partly  on  the  theory  that  the  community 
is  safer  if  those  who  are  in  this  desperate  position  are 
under  lock  and  key  for  the  night,  or  at  least  under 
the  eye  of  the  police.  Sometimes  a  woodyard  especially 
maintained  for  the  purpose  offers  a  chance  to  do  a 
stipulated  amount  of  work  in  exchange  for  shelter  and 
a  meal  or  two.  The  best  provision  is  a  well-equipped 
public  lodging  house,  in  which  all  who  need  shelter  ' 
are  received  under  regulations  which  are  to  some  extent 
a  deterrent  against  abuse.  For  example,  a  bath  is  | 
required,  and  the  disinfection  of  clothing.  A  state- 
ment is  taken  of  the  occupation,  last  residence,  last  li 
regular  employer,  etc.  A  physical  examination  is  made. 
Those  who  need  medical  care  may  be  sent  to  a  hospital ; 
insane  and  feeble-minded  sent  to  suitable  institutions ; 
runaway  boys  sent  home;  deserting  husbands  detained 
for  court  action  on  a  wife's  complaint;  newly  arrived 
aliens  turned  over  to  the  immigration  authorities ;  and 
those  who,  after  care  for  a  reasonable  time,  are  unable 
to  find  employment  or  other  means  of  livelihood,  finally 
sent  to  court  as  vagrants. 

Such  a  sifting  out  of  the  homeless  is  expensive,  but 
it  is  humane  and  has  the  rewards  and  satisfactions 
of  other  kinds  of  social  work.  It  aims  at  rehabilita- 
tion of  those  who  have  ambition  and  personal  assets; 
the  reconciliation  of  estranged  relatives;  the  suitable 
care  of  the  sick  and  infirm;  the  prevention  of  actual 
suffering  from  exposure  and  starvation  while  looking 


110  Social  Work 

for  work.  The  danger  is  that  the  administration  will 
become  perfunctory,  the  personal  contact  with  lodgers 
unsympathetic,  the  more  difficult  and  expensive  kinds 
of  treatment  neglected,  and  the  repellent  features  em- 
phasized until  even  those  who  are  most  in  need  of 
the  lodging  house  will  refuse  to  go  near  it. 

It  is  not  an  ideal  state  of  affairs  when  there  are 
able-bodied  homeless  men  or  women  needing  shelter. 
The  ideal  is  of  course  to  be  sought  in  such  an  organiza- 
tion of  industry  and  agriculture  that  there  shall  be  no 
surplus  labor,  any  enforced  idleness  being  provided 
for,  like  illness  and  old  age,  either  from  an  undivided 
surplus  of  industry  or  from  surplus  social  wealth. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
CHILDREN 


In  their  character  as  the  most  responsive  subjects 
for  both  "preventive"'  and  "constructive"  social  work, 
children  have  in  recent  decades  acquired  a  new  and 
scientific  interest;  and  this,  combined  with  their  un- 
diminished appeal  to  the  affections  and  sympathies, 
has  made  this  indeed  "the  century  of  the  child." 

NATURAL  DEPENDENCE 

Children,  like  the  aged,  are  naturally  dependent, 
whatever  their  financial  circumstances.  All  our  thirty 
million  children  may  be  described  as  dependent.  Who 
it  is  that  they  are  dependent  upon  is  an  interesting 
question  in  social  philosophy.  Are  they  dependent  upon 
the  state  or  upon  their  parents? 

The  more  rational  view  perhaps  is  not  that  parents 
exercise  delegated  authority  derived  from  the  state, 
but  that  both  the  state  and  the  family  are  social  institu- 
tions deriving  equally  their  authority,  their  influence, 
their  power,  from  the  social  need  of  man.  The  state 
is  in  position  to  exercise  coercive  authority,  and  may 
compel  the   acceptance   of   its   decision   in  case  of  a 

111 


112  Social  Work 

difference  between  the  family  and  the  state,  but  the 
state  is  held  in  check  by  public  opinion,  if  by  nothing 
else — by  fear  of  revolution.  This  public  opinion  puts 
direct  responsibility  for  the  physical  welfare  of  the 
I  young  child  upon  the  family ;  primarily,  in  the  earliest 
years,  upon  the  mother.  The  primary  and  elementary 
responsibility  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the  child  also, 
for  the  development  of  character,  rests  upon  the  family. 
In  infant  mortality  and  child  mortality  there  is  an 
index  of  the  extent  to  which  the  physical  need  of  the 
child  is  met.  In  extreme  cases  of  failure  to  meet  these 
needs  the  result  is  death,  and  the  number  of  deaths  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  children  born  is  an  index 
to  the  health  and  vigor  of  the  infant  and  child  popula- 
tion. In  the  same  way  we  have  in  the  criminality  of 
the  community  an  index  or  symbol  of  the  success  of 
the  parents  and  of  the  educational  influences  of  the 
community  in  providing  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the 
children.  It  is  not  a  complete  index  any  more  than 
a  death-rate  is  a  complete  index  for  the  physical  well- 
being.  It  is  merely  a  symbol  which  stands  there  to 
indicate  to  us  the  relative  success  or  failure  of  the 
family,  failure  in  the  end  involving  the  necessity  for 
some  kind  of  reformative  action. 

PRIMARY  RESPONSIBILITY  ON  THE  FAMILY 

Upon  the  family  in  the  first  instance  rests  the  re- 
sponsibility for  both  the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of 
the  children.     The  school  is  only  a  secondary  agency 


Children  113 

in  both  of  these  primary  purposes.  The  health  de- 
partment is  only  a  secondary  agency  on  the  physi- 
cal side;  just  as  the  courts  are  a  secondary  agency 
on  the  side  of  law-abidingness  and  regard  for  the 
rights  of  others  and  the  aspects  of  moral  character 
which  show  themselves  in  civic  and  social  relations. 
The  family,  in  other  words,  is  the  support  of  the  school 
and  the  health  department  on  the  physical  side,  and  the 
support  of  the  school  and  the  courts  on  the  moral  side ; 
but  neither  the  school  and  the  health  department,  on 
the  physical  side,  nor  the  school  and  the  courts,  on 
the  moral  side,  can  be  regarded  as  primary  agencies 
in  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  the  child  in 
the  sense  in  which  the  family  is. 

This  is  the  modern  view  of  the  family.  It  is  not 
the  old  Roman  idea.  In  the  Roman  law  dominion  sums 
up  in  a  word  the  central  thought  of  the  relation  of  par- 
ent and  child.  The  father  had  power  in  life  and  death 
over  the  child  and  was  responsible  for  the  child's  acts. 
The  modern  conception  puts  the  word  protection  in  place 
of  dominion  as  its  central  thought.  It  is  guardianship 
of  the  child,  exercise  of  trusteeship.  Protection  is  its 
main  idea,  and  when  we  speak  of  parental  authority  we 
are 'quite  as  apt  to  have  in  mind  maternal  as  paternal 
authority.  We  think  of  the  two  as  more  nearly  equal, 
and  in  so  far  as  we  distinguish  between  them  we 
would  put  first  the  maternal  responsibility,  because  of 
the  physiological  relations,  because  of  the  greater  ex- 
tent to  which  the  mother  in  modern  society  manages 


114  Sodial  Work 

the  internal  affairs  of  the  family  and  is  responsible 
for  the  domestic  economy  upon  which  the  well-being, 
the  health,  and  the  moral  character  of  the  children  de- 
pend; and  that  responsibility,  that  authority,  that 
trusteeship,  does  not  end  with  infancy,  but  continues 
through  childhood  and  the  whole  period  of  minority. 
And  so  when  the  state  intervenes  it  is  not  our  idea 
that  the  state  is  re-assuming  some  authority  which  it 
had  delegated  to  parents;  but  that  the  state  represents  I 
our  social  relations  as  a  whole;  and  that,  having  in 
itself  the  resources  which  the  family  does  not  have  for 
dealing  with  the  emergency,  it  is  called  upon  to  inter- 
vene, to  recognize  that  this  parental  protection,  this 
guardianship,  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  lacking,  and  that  i 
some  substitute  is  called  for — some  rougher  and  more 
mechanical  and  more  drastic  authority,  not  so  inherently 
well  fitted  for  normal  child  care,  but  nevertheless  hav- 
ing a  certain  rough  and  ready  capacity  for  doing  what 
in  the  emergency  needs  to  be  done.  We  may,  there- 
fore, think  of  state  intervention  in  a  family  when 
parental  authority  is  broken  down  for  any  reason,  as 
an  emergency  action  in  a  disaster,  an  attempt  by  society 
to   repair  that  disaster. 

RIGHTS  OF  CHILDHOOD 

The  Child  Welfare  Standards  published  by  the  fed- 
eral Children's  Bureau  say  on  this  subject : 

The  fundamental  rights  of  childhood  are  normal 
home  life,  opportunities  for  education,  recreation, 


Children  1 1 5 

vocational  preparation  for  life,  and  moral,  relig- 
ious, and  physical  development  in  harmony  with 
American  ideals  and  the  educational  and  spiritual 
agencies  by  which  these  rights  of  the  child  are 
normally  safeguarded. 

Upon  the  state  devolves  the  ultimate  responsi- 
bility for  children  who  are  in  need  of  special  care 
by  reason  of  unfortunate  home  conditions,  physi- 
cal or  mental  handicap,  or  delinquency.*  Partic- 
ular legislation  is  required  to  insure  for  such  chil- 
dren the  nearest  possible  approach  to  normal 
development. 

PROTECTION   AND   PLACING  OUT 

For  the  prevention  of  cruelty  and  neglect  by  parents, 
and  for  dealing  with  "unfortunate  home  conditions" 
in  general,  special  societies  have  been  established  to  I 
supplement  the  courts,  prosecuting  officials,  and  policet' 
officers,  and  in  some  instances  these  societies  for  the 
prevention  of  cruelty  to  children  have  a  broad  program 
of  child  welfare.  From  their  familiarity  with  court 
procedure  they  often  have  great  influence  in  legislation 
relating  to  the  punishment  and  prevention  of  ofifenses 
by  children,  as  well  as  in  that  enacted  for  their  protec- 

*  The  responsibility  of  the  state  is  by  no  means  limited 
to  those  who  are  thus  in  need  of  special  care.  The  Children's 
Bureau  Standards,  in  the  section  on  the  public  protection  of 
the  health  of  mothers  and  children,  deal  with  the  obligation 
of  the  state  in  regard  to  the  health  of  school  children  and 
adolescent    children. 


116  Social  Work 

/  tion.  Children's  aid  societies,  or — as  they  are  called 
in  some  states — "home  and  aid"  societies,  whose  orig- 
inal function  was  the  placing  of  orphans  or  neglected 
children  in  foster  homes,  show  a  similar  tendency  to 
extend  their  services  to  any  aspect  of  child  welfare  not 
already  receiving  attention  in  their  territory. 

The  Children's  Bureau  Standards  insist  that  "unless 
unusual  conditions  exist,  the  child's  welfare  is  best 
promoted  by  keeping  him  in  his  own  home,"  and  that 
"no  child  should  be  permanently  removed  from  his 
home  unless  it  is  impossible  so  to  reconstruct  family 
conditions  or  build  and  supplement  family  resources 
as  to  make  the  home  safe  for  the  child,  or  so  to  super- 
vise the  child  as  to  make  his  continuance  in  the  home 
safe  for  the  community." 

\  Foster  homes  may  be  used  in  providing  for  children 
who  must  be  removed  from  their  own  homes,  as  the 
Standards  point  out,  to  a  much  larger  degree  than  at 
present.  The  principles  governing  child  placing  can 
hardly  be  stated  more  clearly  or  more  concisely  than 
in  the  language  of  the  Standards : 

Before  a  child  is  placed  in  other  than  a  tempo- 
rary foster  home,  adequate  consideration  should 
be  given  to  his  health,  mentality,  character,  and 
family  history  and  circumstances.  Arrangements 
should  be  made  for  correcting  remediable  physical 
defects  and  disease. 

Complete  records  of  the  child  are  necessary  to 


Children  117 

a  proper  understanding  of  his  heredity  and  per- 
sonaHty,  and  of  his  development  and  progress 
while  under  the  care  of  the  agency. 

Particular  consideration  should  be  given  to  chil- 
dren who  are  difficult  to  place  and  who  require 
provision  adapted  to  their  peculiar  need. 

Careful  and  wise  investigation  of  foster  homes  f 
is  pre-requisite  to  the  placing  of  children.  Ade- 
quate standards  should  be  required  of  the  foster 
families  as  to  character,  intelligence,  training,  abil- 
ity, income,  environment,  sympathetic  attitude,  and 
their  ability  to  give  the  child  proper  moral  and 
spiritual  training.  When  practicable  children 
should  be  placed  in  families  of  the  same  religious 
faith  as  the  parents  or  the  last  surviving  parent. 

A  complete  record  should  be  kept  of  each  fos-  ^ 
ter  home,  giving  the  information  on  which  ap- 
proval was  based.  The  records  should  show  the 
agency's  contacts  with  the  family  from  time  to 
time,  indicating  the  care  given  to  the  child  en- 
trusted to  it.  In  this  way  special  abilities  in  the 
families  will  be  developed  and  conserved  for 
children. 

Supervision  of  children  placed  in  foster  homes    -^ 
should  include  adequate  visits  by  properly  quali- 
fied and  well-trained  visitors,  who  should  exercise 
watchfulness   over   the   child's   health,    education, 
and   moral   and  spiritual  development.      Periodic     ) 
physical  examinations  should  be  made.     Supervi- 


118  Social  Work 

/  sion  of  children  In  boarding  homes  should  also  in- 
volve careful  training  of  the  foster  parents  in 
their  task.  Supervision  should  not  be  made  a 
substitute  for  the  responsibilities  which  properly 
rest  with  the  foster  family. 

The  transfer  of  the  legal  guardianship  of  a 
child  should  not  be  permitted,  save  with  the  con- 

)  sent  of  a  properly  designated  state  department 
or  a  court  of  proper  jurisdiction. 

In  all  cases  involving  the  legal  adoption  of  chil- 
dren, the  court  should  make  a  full  inquiry  into 
all  the  facts  through  its  own  visitor  or  through 
some  other  unbiassed  agency  before  awarding  the 
child's  custody. 

ILLEGITIMACY 

The  child  born  out  of  wedlock  presents  a  serious 
problem,  for  which  our  present  bastardy  proceedings 
furnish  only  a  very  unsatisfactory  solution.  The 
Standards  demands  that  each  state  shall  make  suitable 
provision  of  a  humane  character  for  establishing 
paternity  and  guaranteeing  to  children  born  out  of 
wedlock  the  rights  naturally  belonging  to  children  born 
in  wedlock.  Care  of  the  child  by  its  mother,  particularly 
during  the  nursing  period,  is  highly  desirable;  and 
the  father  should  be  under  the  same  financial  respon- 
sibilities and  the  same  legal  liabiHties  towards  his  child 
as  other  fathers. 


Children  119 


HOMES   FOR   CHILDREN 

Orphanages,  asylums,  homes,  shelters,  and  protec- 
tories for  children  have  been  intended  to  serve  various 
purposes  aside  from  that  of  general  relief;  but  their 
main  common  purpose  has  been  to  provide  a  substitute 
for  the   family  when  it   fails  because  of  death,  dis-l 
ability,  incompetence,  indifference,  or  poverty.    As  the 
aged  go  into  the  almshouse  or  the  private  home  for 
aged   and   infirm,    so   children   are   received   into   an 
orphanage  or  a  home  for  half -orphans  or  neglected 
children.      This   is   their   primary,    original    function. 
However   far   they   may   develop  a  special   character::, 
of  one  kind  or  another,  the  children's  home  at  any 
rate  must  give  shelter  and  nourishment  and  nurture. 

Institutional  care  for  dependent  children  has  long 
been  one  of  the  principal  means  by  which  the  churches 
and  philanthropic  people  inspired  by  religious  altruism 
have  dealt  with  poverty.  When  the  home  must  be 
broken  up  something  has  to  be  done  for  the  young 
children,  and  to  place  them  in  an  institution  is  the 
thing  w^hich  seems  to  meet  the  need  most  definitely 
and  completely.  To  be  sure,  there  have  always  been 
alternatives.  Relatives  or  neighbors  may  take  them. 
A  free  home  may  be  found  for  them  in  a  family  which 
has  no  children  or  in  which  room  can  be  found  for 
the  strangers  with  a  view  to  adoption.  They  may  be 
boarded  at  public  expense  or  by  a  children's  agency 
in  carefully  selected  private  families  under  supervision. 


120  Social  Work 

Of  these  three  methods  the  first  is  most  common  in  the 
sparsely  settled  open  country,  where  food  comes  largely 
from  the  farm  and  garden  and  all  are  living  in  such 
a  way  that  population  does  not  press  hard  against  the 
means  of  subsistence.  The  second  permits  a  certain 
desirable  shifting  of  the  surplus  dependent  children 
from  town  to  country,  from  more  populous  to  less 
populous  states.  It  is  susceptible  of  abuse,  however, 
and  has  led  to  the  enactment  of  legislation  intended 
to  protect  the  newer  states  from  careless  placing-out. 
The  third  becomes  a  necessary  supplement  to  the  others 
in  any  general  use  of  the  placing-out  system :  to  care 
for  those  who  are  less  eligible  for  adoption,  or  who 
for  any  reason  need  to  be  kept  under  closer  supervision, 
in  the  hands  of  specially  qualified  house  mothers.  The 
institution  has  some  advantages  as  a  place  for  tem- 
porary care,  for  intensive  study,  for  discipline,  for 
preparation  of  the  child  for  a  foster  home,  and  even 
those  who  prefer  foster  homes  eventually  for  homeless 
children  generally  recognize  that  they  cannot  dispense 
with  the  receiving  home  for  such  purposes.  Moreover, 
the  need  for  separation  from  the  natural  parents  may 
pass  with  re-marriage  of  a  widowed  father  or  mother, 
or  a  recovery  from  illness,  or  increased  earning  power 
in  children  of  working  age,  or  any  other  of  several 
changes  which  are  constantly  taking  place,  especially  in 
the  rapidly  shifting  conditions  of  American  industrial 
workers.  With  efficient  home  service  such  situations 
may  be  met  without  even  a  temporary  commitment 


Children  121 

of  children  to  an  institution,  but  in  some  instances 
this  appears  to  be  the  most  satisfactory,  and  indeed 
sometimes  the  only  practicable  way,  of  providing  for 
an  emergency.  In  city  "orphan  asylums"  there  are 
many  children  who  are  neither  orphans  nor  even  half- 
orphans,  but  are  merely  spending  a  few  weeks  in  the 
institution  at  the  city's  expense  to  meet  the  convenience 
of  their  parents,  just  as  other  children  might  be  sent 
to  visit  an  aunt  or  a  friend.  The  Children's  Bureau 
Standards  declare : 

The  stay  of  children  in  institutions  for  depen- 
dents should  be  as  brief  as  possible.  The  con- 
ditions of  all  children  in  such  institutions  should 
be  carefully  studied  at  frequent  intervals,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  they  should  be  restored  to 
their  own  homes,  placed  in  foster  homes,  or  trans- 
ferred to  institutions  better  suited  to  their  needs. 
While  they  do  remain  in  institutions,  their  condi- 
tion should  approximate  as  nearly  as  possible  that 
of  normal  family  life  as  to  health,  recreation, 
schooling,  and  spiritual,  aesthetic,  civic,  and  voca- 
tional training. 

Children's  homes,  just  because  they  are  substitutes 
for  the  family  in  its  most  essential  function,  have  a 
far  greater  responsibility  than  any  home  for  adults. 
They  have  to  take  into  account  the  need  for  education, 
moral  and  religious  and  social  as  well  as  intellectual, 


122  Social  Work 

and  in  due  time  vocational.  They  have  to  teach  grow- 
ing children  how  to  live,  how  to  live  together,  how 
also  to  fall  back  upon  their  own  resources ;  how  to  use 
books,  but  also  how  to  use  tools  and  how  to  use  their 
senses.  Institutions  have  to  plan  more  deliberately  and 
conscientiously  than  ordinary  schools  or  natural  par- 
ents, if  they  would  do  as  well  by  their  wards,  for  some 
things  which  the  child  living  at  home  in  a  family  and 
at  large  in  the  community  can  hardly  escape  do  not 
automatically  come  in  the  way  of  the  institutional  child. 
It  is  frequently  assumed  that  the  child  in  the  institu- 
tion must  necessarily  miss  these  educational  experiences, 
but  that  depends  on  the  imagination  and  skill  of  the 
officers  and  teachers  in  the  institution.  Initiative  and 
resourcefulness  may  be  developed  if  the  institution  re- 
fuses to  be  "institutionalized."  There  are  indeed  some 
opportunities  inherent  in  the  institution  which  the 
average  family  life  misses  altogether.  It  is  easier  to 
organize  the  life  of  the  child  as  a  whole,  to  co-ordinate 
formal  teaching  with  recreation,  work  with  play,  in 
a  way  that  may  produce  remarkable  and  excellent  re- 
sults. The  whole  curriculum  may  be  so  planned  as 
to  encourage  freedom  of  the  spirit,  to  stimulate  curios- 
ity, to  bring  out  individuality,  as  well  as  on  the  con- 
trary principles.  It  may  be  more  expensive,  and  it 
may  recpire  greater  intelligence  and  skill,  but  there  are 
instances  to  show  that  it  is  possible. 

Children's  institutions  have  had  a  phenomenal  growth 
in  certain  places   because   of   local   conditions.      New 


Cliildrcn  123 

York,  for  example,  is  the  principal  port  of  entry  for 
immigration,  and  large  numbers  of  newly  arrived  immi- 
grants are  drawn  directly  into  industries  which  in 
the  past  have  been  underpaid  and  have  had  a  disastrous 
effect  on  health.  It  is  a  manufacturing  city,  with  its 
central  borough  on  an  overcrowded  island  packed  with 
overcrowded  tenements.  Without  general  public  relief 
in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  the  only  recourse  of  the 
authorities,  when  income  is  insufficient  and  private 
agencies  do  not  come  to  the  rescue,  has  been  to  commit 
the  children.  It  does  not  follow  that  public  out-door 
relief  as  usually  administered  would  have  lessened  such 
commitments.  Indeed,  in  the  seventies  of  the  last  cen- 
tury lavish  out-door  relief  and  careless  commitments 
to  institutions  seemed  to  go  together.  The  child  v.'el- 
fare  allowances  or  mothers'  pensions  of  recent  years, 
however,  have  certainly  obviated  the  necessity  of  many 
commitments,  and  in  1921  there  are  only  about  two- 
thirds  as  many  children  in  institutions  as  there  were 
five  years  earlier.  This  is,  of  course,  affected  by  gen- 
eral industrial  conditions,  but  at  this  v.-riting  there  is 
much  unemployment,  strikes  are  in  progress  in  the 
clothing  and  shipping  industries,  and  real  wages  are 
not  appreciably  above  the  level  of  1916. 

CHILD    WELFARE    ALLOWANCES 

Over  a  century  ago  some  active  benevolent  ladies 
were  carrying  on  a  society  for  the  relief  of  widows 


124  Social  Work 

and  small  children  in  the  city  of  New  York.  They 
were  giving  them  month  by  month  during  the  winter 
such  assistance  as  they  thought  necessary,  accompanied 
by  such  conditions  as  they  thought  would  be  beneficial. 
Some  of  the  ladies,  however — probably  the  younger 
ones — were  dissatisfied  with  what  they  were  accom- 
plishing, and  made  up  their  minds  that  they  would  like 
to  do  something  preventive,  constructive,  more  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  dynamic  social  ideals.  So  they 
established  the  New  York  Orphan  Asylum. 

In  our  own  time,  when  large  numbers  of  children 
have  been  cared  for  in  asylums  and  institutions,  and 
very  large  sums  of  money  have  been  expended  for 
their  maintenance  and  support  in  this  way,  some  peo- 
ple— perhaps  the  younger  ones,  at  least  in  spirit,  among 
those  interested  in  the  care  of  dependent  children — 
having  a  similar  dissatisfaction  and  impatience  with 
the  results  that  are  being  accomplished,  feeling  that 
they  would  like  to  do  something  constructive,  something 
preventive,  something  more  in  accord  with  our  dynamic 
social  ideals,  have  advocated — what?  Nothing  less 
than  the  giving  of  relief  to  mothers  in  their  own  homes, 
just  what  the  voluntary  society  was  doing,  from  which 
the  orphan  asylum  split  off  in  Jefferson's  administra- 
tion. This  reversion  illustrates  the  relativity  of  all 
programs,  the  cycles  in  which  relief  moves,  the  way 
in  which  we  come  back  to  an  idea,  a  plan,  a  method, 
which  had  been  abandoned  because  it  was  obsolete,  in- 
consistent with  the  ideals  of  the  times;  and  come  back 


Children  125 

to  it  properly,  because  as  a  re-action  against  particular 
things  which  are  done  at  the  moment  it  represents 
progress. 

Widows'  pensions,  mothers'  pensions,  funds  to 
parents,  or — in  the  term  which  more  accurately  ex- 
presses their  purpose — child  welfare  allowances,  were 
inaugurated  in  four-fifths  of  the  states  in  the  decade 
between  1910  and  1920.  This  policy  is  now  well 
established;  but  in  many  states  the  allowances  are 
inadequate  in  amount  and  there  is  a  notable  absence 
of  that  "careful  and  competent  case  study"  which  the 
Children's  Bureau's  child  welfare  standards  regard  as 
essential,  and  which,  as  they  say,  "must  be  renewed 
from  time  to  time  to  meet  changing  conditions." 

The  common  purpose  of  these  allowances  is  to  pre- 
vent the  breaking  up  of  the  home  when  the  natural 
breadwinner  is  removed  by  death  or  disability.  In 
some  states  the  allowances  are  made  only  to  widows, 
in  others  also  to  mothers  whose  husbands  are  im- 
prisoned or  incapacitated  or  have  deserted.  In  the 
conditions  on  which  aid  is  given,  the  persons  to  whom 
it  may  be  given,  the  source  of  the  funds  (i.  e.,  whether 
state  or  county),  the  character  of  the  supervision,  and 
the  agency  through  which  the  funds  are  administered, 
the  laws  of  the  different  states  present  extraordinary 
variation.* 


*  Publication  Number  63  of  the  federal  Children's  Bureau 
presents  a  compilation  and  analysis  of  these  laws  to  the  close 
of   the    legislative    sessions   of    1919. 


126  Social  Work 

Opposition  to  mothers'  pensions  was  made  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  not  needed;  or  that,  when  they 
are  needed,  it  would  be  better  for  the  voluntary  socie- 
ties to  give  them,  as  they  always  have,  or  that  they 
should  be  supplied  by  the  overseers  of  the  poor  or 
commissioners  of  public  charities  in  the  regular  course 
of  their  administration  of  public  relief  funds.  Such 
objections  were  lightly  brushed  aside  in  the  face  of  the 
indisputable  consideration  that  mothers  of  young  chil- 
dren cannot  as  a  rule  earn  a  living  for  themselves  and 
their  children  and  at  the  same  time  give  them  the  care 
which  they  need.  It  was  believed  that  the  resources 
of  the  private  societies  were  inadequate,  and  their  point 
of  view  too  unsympathetic  to  the  whole  idea  of  state 
pensions,  and  that  the  methods  of  public  relief  were 
inappropriate,  even  if  the  funds  had  been  sufficient,  to 
permit  the  acceptance  of  either  of  the  alternatives. 

To  the  very  different  objection  that  "pensions"  were 
only  out-door  relief  under  another  name,  and  that  social 
insurance  is  really  the  alternative  which  our  modern 
ideals  demand,  it  was  replied  that  the  pensions  were 
intended  to  be  a  half-way  step  towards  social  insurance. 
The  demand  for  pensions  rather  than  poor  relief  for 
the  aged,  the  disabled,  and  widows,  has  represented  a 
wholesome  revolt  against  inadequate,  perfunctory,  and 
demoralizing  public  out-door  relief  on  tlie  one  hand, 
and  class-conscious,  superior  private  charity  on  the 
other.  Nevertheless  the  demand  has  been  short-sighted, 
and  therefore  misses  the  mark.     What  is  wanted  is  not 


Children  127 

a  pension,  but  social  insurance.  If  death,  old  age,  and 
disability  were  fully  provided  for  by  compensation 
when  they  are  a  legitimate  charge  on  industry,  and  by 
insurance  when  there  is  no  undivided  industrial  re- 
source, all  that  the  hot  champions  of  pensions  desire 
would  be  realized,  and  the  heated  arguments  of  their 
opponents  would  be  dissolved  into  thin  air. 

DAY   NURSERIES 

The  day  nursery  or  creche  represents  a  compromise, 
a  working  adjustment,  made  necessary  by  the  employ- 
ment away  from  home  of  the  mothers  of  young  chil- 
dren. They  were  established  to  care  for  infants  who 
were  neglected  while  their  mothers  worked;  or  else, 
according  to  the  point  of  view,  to  enable  mothers  who 
would  otherwise  be  kept  at  home  to  go  out  to  work 
in  order  to  earn  a  living  for  themselves  and  their  chil- 
dren, or  to  enable  them  to  keep  their  children  with 
them  instead  of  consigning  them  to  an  institution. 
Ideally  mothers  of  young  children  should  not  go  out 
to  work.  Their  children  have  first  claim — something 
in  the  nature  of  a  monopoly  claim.  But  in  the  first 
place  mothers  are  needed.  It  would  be  difficult  in 
other  homes  to  get  the  family  washing  and  the  house 
cleaning  done  if  these  day  nursery  mothers  were  not 
free  to  come  in  for  day's  work.  Then  these  mothers 
may  be  more  successful  workers  by  the  day  or  in 
factories  than  as  caretakers  of  their  own  children.  A 
girl  trained  to  office  or  factory  work  or  as  a  laundress 


128  Social  Work 

before  marriage  may  find  a  tenement  home  very  tedious. 
She  may  really  prefer  to  work  for  wages  somewhere 
else,  and  she  may  need  the  income.  The  day  nursery 
may  do  better  for  the  children  than  the  hard  pressed 
mother  could.  The  food  may  be  better  in  quality  and 
better  prepared  and  more  regularly  administered.  The 
play  may  be  safer  and  more  educational.  The  nap 
may  be  more  regular  and  beneficial  than  one  at  home. 
The  nursery  may  teach  the  mother  some  of  the  things 
about  the  care  of  the  infant  which  she  needs  to  know. 
Home  visits  supplementary  to  the  service  in  the  nursery 
may  give  an  opportunity  to  the  social  worker  to  exer- 
cise a  good  influence  on  other  members  of  the  family. 
Day  nurseries  have  their  own  problems.  In  offering 
care  for  the  young  children  throughout  the  working 
day  at  a  nominal  charge  they  assume  a  degree  of 
responsibility  for  the  mother's  being  at  work.  They 
should  therefore  be  sure  that  it  is  justified.  They 
should  be  sure  that  the  work  of  the  mother  is  not 
resulting  in  the  neglect  of  other  children,  that  it  is  not 
a  means  of  lowering  rather  than  raising  the  family's 
standard  of  living.  If  the  father  is  Hving,  the  question 
whether  his  earnings  should  not  be  enough  to  support 
the  family  is  always  present.  The  presumption  is 
against  the  employment  outside  her  own  home  of  the 
mother  of  a  young  child.  The  burden  of  proof  that 
it  is  advisable  rests  on  those  who  employ  her  and  on 
those  who  make  her  employment  possible,  as  well  as 
on  herself  and  her  natural  supporter. 


Children  129 


FRESH-AIR  AGENCIES 


The  seaside,  mountain,  and  country  camps  to  which 
ailing  children  are  sent,  and  tired  mothers,  conval- 
escents, or  others  in  need  for  any  reason  of  a  change 
for  a  day,  a  week,  or  a  fortnight,  might  be  regarded 
as  preventive  rather  than  remedial  agencies,  although 
they  are  both.  Some  of  them  are  merely  for  recreation, 
the  sort  of  holiday  which  the  most  robust  are  entitled 
to  have  if  they  can.  Some  of  them  are  distinctly 
hospitals  for  the  better  treatment  of  those  whose  illness 
requires  elevation  or  salt  air  or  whatever  other  special 
advantage  the  favored  location  offers.  Between  these 
extremes  are  all  sorts  of  places  where  children  may  have 
a  happy  day,  a  chance  to  recover  from  an  illness  or  to 
lay  up  surplus  energy  in  anticipation  of  the  city's  heat 
and  humidity.  Instead  of  a  camp  or  home  devoted 
exclusively  to  fresh-air  work,  children  may  be  sent 
for  a  visit  to  farmers'  homes  in  the  country,  where 
they  will  have  a  chance  to  see  what  life  on  the  open 
land  is  like. 

So  extensive  has  the  fresh-air  work  of  the  cities 
become  that  central  registration  has  been  found  to  be 
advisable  to  insure  the  widest  distribution  of  the  avail- 
able opportunities  and  the  best  possible  selection  of 
candidates.  There  is  in  general,  however,  less  rigid 
formality  in  these  excursions  than  in  other  forms  of 
relief.  Sometimes  the  outing  is  a  mere  incident  of  a 
church  or  settlement  association  which  extends  through- 


130  Social  Work 

out  the  year.  Sometimes  it  is  a  reward  of  school 
attendance.  On  whatever  basis,  it  is  a  very  useful 
and  delightful  development  of  social  work,  a  means 
of  increasing  happiness  and  physical  resistance,  of 
education  and  refreshment  of  spirit.  The  withering 
heat  of  the  city  is  a  strain  on  the  best  physique.  In 
rear  tenements,  in  basements,  in  alleys,  in  stuffy^  bed- 
rooms and  kitchens  which  are  also  living  rooms,  the 
children  crumple  under  it.  The  escape  from  the  hot 
pavements  and  the  stench  of  the  gutters  for  a  breath 
of  country  air  in  the  hills  or  of  salt  air  at  the  seaside 
means  for  the  children  revival  and  preparation  for  a 
struggle  in  which  they  are  at  best  handicapped,  and 
to  see  the  magical  results  of  such  a  change  is  for  the 
observer  a  prophecy  of  a  time  when  children  will  live 
all  the  year  round  under  better  conditions  than  those 
of  the  congested  tenements  of  the  modern  city. 


CHAPTER    IX 
THE  SICK 


The  history  of  social  work  in  the  past  generation  has 
been  largely  one  of  transferring  attention  from  moral 
to  physical  weakness.  The  charity  worker  of  an  earlier 
day  did  not  deny  the  fact  of  illness,  but  seldom  got  rid 
of  a  suspicion  that  probably  shiftlessness  or  some  other 
moral  delinquency  was  at  the  bottom  of  it.  The  mod- 
ern social  worker  does  not  deny  the  fact  of  moral 
delinquency,  but  is  always  on  the  alert  to  see  whether 
there  is  not  some  physical  explanation  of  it.  The 
earlier  tendency  was  to  divide  human  beings  into  the 
respectable  and  others.  The  later  tendency  is  to  think 
of  the  normal  and  the  deficient.  Both  attitudes  have 
their  drawbacks.  Both  classifications  are  far  too  sim- 
ple for  the  facts.  Saints  and  sinners  there  are,  no 
doubt,  at  the  extreme  limits,  but  from  the  moral  point 
of  view  most  people  are  complex,  with  faults  and 
virtues,  and  the  attempt  to  base  decisions  in  social  work 
on  worthiness,  desert,  respectability,  as  a  simple  prin- 
ciple of  classification,  had  to  be  abandoned.  This  is 
hot  to  say  that  specific  elements  of  character,  or  par- 
ticular experiences  or  associations  or  habits,   can  be 

131 


132  So(^ial  Work 

ignored.  Each  demonstrable  factor  must  be  taken  into 
account  for  whatever  it  is  worth,  and  utiHzed  in  diag- 
nosis and  treatment — in  the  making  of  a  definite  plan 
for  promoting  the  well-being  of  the  one  whose  welfare 
is  in  question. 

INDIVIDUALITY   MUST   BE  RESPECTED 

In  our  present  pre-occupation  with  physical  and  mental 
health,  this  lesson  learned  by  our  predecessors  should 
be  kept  in  mind  and  applied.  Human  beings  are  not 
sick  or  well;  normal  or  deficient.  They  cannot  be 
relegated  to  two  or  more  such  simple,  unqualified  cate- 
gories. A  one-armed  man  is  not  a  "cripple,''  to  be 
henceforth  treated  as  one  of  a  class,  along  with  one- 
armed  and  one-legged;  no-armed  and  no-legged; 
rheumatic  and  paralytic.  He  is  rather  to  be  regarded 
as  an  individual  human  being,  whose  working  and 
living  habits  must  be  modified,  very  slightly  in  some 
cases,  radically  in  others,  to  take  his  particular  limita- 
tion into  account.  One  may  be  short-sighted  or  color 
Wind;  nervous  or  irritable;  deformed  of  figure;  deaf 
or  lame ;  excessively  plain  or  heavier  than  is  convenient. 
These  physical  characteristics  may  be  very  conspicuous 
to  superficial  observers,  even  to  friends,  and  yet,  on 
fuller  understanding,  they  may  be  so  overshadowed  by 
other  qualities  as  to  be  almost  or  quite  negligible. 
We  do  not  think  of  them  as  a  basis  for  classification. 
Some  ailments  and  defects  may  be  completely  disabling, 
destroying  the  possibility  of  any  useful  occupation  or 


TJic  Sick  133 

rational  enjoyment.  Between  these  extremes  o£  negli- 
gible peculiarities  and  completely  disabling  infirmities 
are  all  conceivable  degrees  of  bodily  and  mental  afflic- 
tion. The  point  is  that  the  advantageous  and  sensible 
attitude  for  the  social  worker  is  one  which  emphasizes 
personality,  and  regards  the  disability  as  an  incident; 
one  which  refuses  to  lump  together  the  consumptives, 
the  rheumatics,  the  paralytics,  the  neurasthenics,  and 
to  treat  them  indiscriminately  on  the  basis  of  their 
ailment;  one  which  insists  instead  on  thinking  of  par- 
ticular individuals  who  have  many  interesting  and  im- 
portant characteristics,  among  which  may  happen  to 
be  some  pulmonary  or  nervous  limitation  which  in 
their  interest  needs  to  be  taken  into  account :  for  cure 
if  possible;  for  alleviation;  and  for  recognition  as  a 
fact,  neither  to  be  minimized  nor  to  be  exaggerated. 

A   POSITIVE   HEALTH    IDEAL 

One  natural  result  of  this  view  should  be  to  increase 
public  concern  for  the  adequate  treatment  of  the  sick, 
and  to  intensify  the  demand  for  the  elimination  of 
those  diseases  which  are  preventable.  We  come  to 
think  of  sick  and  disabled  people  not  as  invalids  but 
as  people  who  are  ill;  to  appreciate  the  interference  of 
ill  health  with  the  normal  life  of  human  beings;  to 
recognize  that  illness  is  a  nuisance,  a  subtraction  from 
enjoyment  and  useful  activity ;  to  see  that  the  duration 
of  acute  illness,  the  degree  of  discomfort  caused  by 


134  Social  Work 

chronic  ailments,  the  number  who  succumb  to  infectious 
disease,  the  mortahty  caused  by  an  epidemic,  are  meas- 
urably within  public  control;  to  learn  the  significance 
of  the  dictum  that  health  is  a  purchaseable  commodity; 
and  thus  to  take  a  more  hopeful  and  more  determined 
view  of  public  health  activities,  a  more  intelligent  atti- 
tude towards  the  work  of  hospitals,  dispensaries,  sana- 
toria, district  nursing,  industrial  medicine,  school 
hygiene,  and  all  the  other  means  by  which  physical 
and  mental  ailments  are  discovered  and  treated,  and 
physical  vigor  and  resistance  to  disease  are  increased. 
We  visualize  health  as  the  normal,  ordinary,  and 
ordinarily  attainable  condition.  We  think  of  it  in 
terms  of  what  can  be  done  by  vigorous  workers;  of 
what  happiness  and  satisfaction  are  possible  when  the 
limitations  of  preventable  disease  are  removed.  We 
do  not  become  hypochondriacs.  Quite  the  contrary. 
We  become  human.  We  are  preoccupied  with  disease 
only  as  an  obstacle  to  be  overcome,  as  a  bad  habit  to 
be  outgrown  by  the  race,  if  not  by  the  individual, 
as  a  swamp  to  be  drained,  a  dry  land  to  be  watered, 
a  mountain  to  be  tunnelled.  We  train  our  children  in 
the  habits  of  personal  and  public  hygiene  as  in  good 
manners,  in  order  that  they  may  forget  them,  not 
in  order  that  they  may  become  an  end  in  life.  Bathing, 
exercise,  erect  carriage,  deep  breathing,  rational  diet, 
cleanliness,  temperance,  are  in  themselves  nothing. 
They  are  an  incidental  routine,  obtruding  themselves 
offensively  only  in  those  whose  civilization  is  imperfect. 


The  Sick  135 

whose  early  education  has  been  neglected.  When  the 
laws  of  health  are  observed  tacitly,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  without  undue  advertisement,  with  no  feeling 
of  conscious  virtue,  as  well-bred  people  everywhere 
do  observe  them,  there  is  time  to  live  worthily  and 
happily.  To  guarantee  this  is  of  course  not  within 
Hygeia's  power,  but  we  may  at  least  be  grateful  for 
her  part  in  making  it  easier  and  more  probable. 

THE   HOSPITAL 

The  hospital-is  the  natural  center  of  social  provision 
for  illness.  Into  the  hospital  comes  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  those  who  are  seriously  ill.  Religious  feel- 
ing, elementary  philanthropy,  mutual  inter-dependence, 
and  a  sense  of  civic  responsibility,  have  all  in  turn  or 
in  union  inspired  the  founding  and  support  of  hospitals 
and  dispensaries.  The  necessity  for  clinical  facilities 
in  teaching,  and  the  needs  of  well-to-do  patients  who 
are  ready  to  pay  in  full  both  for  board  and  for  their 
professional  care,  have  been  important  factors  in  the 
development  of  the  modern  hospital  system.  The  care, 
however,  of  those  who  cannot  pay  at  all  or  anything 
like  the  full  cost  of  their  maintenance,  except  as  they 
contribute  incidentally  to  the  education  of  physicians 
and  nurses,  has  been  the  main  purpose  of  the  public 
hospital  and  of  most  of  those  which  are  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  religious  bodies  or  by  voluntary 
corporations.     The  private  commercial  or  professional 


136  Social  Work 

hospital  exists,  but  as  compared  with  the  public  and 
quasi-philanthropic  institutions  their  number  and  social 
significance  are  negligible. 

What  is  a  hospital?  It  may  be  housed  in  a  many- 
storied,  architecturally  imposing  building,  or  a  group 
of  many  such  buildings ;  but,  as  in  the  famous  definition 
of  a  college — a  log  with  a  Mark  Hopkins  at  one  end 
and  a  boy  at  the  other — it  is  better  to  forget  the  great 
buildings,  the  beautiful  chapel,  the  marble  halls,  and 
spacious  grounds  which  are  sometimes  associated  with 
hospitals,  and  fix  attention  on  its  essentials.  The  typical 
hospital  ward — a  large  room  with  beds  for  several 
patients  of  the  same  general  class :  men's  surgical 
cases,  for  example — will  quickly  reveal  these  essentials  : 
a  comfortable  bed,  higher  than  that  used  in  a  hotel 
or  at  home,  to  facilitate  the  work  of  nurse  and  physi- 
cian, scrupulous  cleanliness,  quiet,  good  ventilation, 
correct  temperature,  meals  and  treatment  at  prescribed 
periods,  discipline,  order,  cheerful  confidence.  The 
patient  is  the  center  of  interest.  His  temperature  and 
appetite,  the  condition  of  the  organs  affected  by  the 
illness,  the  functioning  of  the  excretory  organs,  and 
any  other  s3aTiptoms  which  will  throw  light  on  his  prog- 
ress, are  carefully  noted  and  recorded.  He  is  not, 
however,  merely  a  case,  presenting  interesting  pro- 
fessional aspects.  His  personality  is  also  in  question. 
His  family  and  business  or  professional  interests,  his 
politics  and  religion,  his  likes  and  dislikes,  his  friend- 
ships and  social  relationships  of  any  kind,  may  be  of 


The  Sick  137 

very  considerable  importance  to  the  doctor  and  nurse 
before  he  leaves. 

Perhaps  an  operation  is  to  be  performed.  In  a  small 
room  reserved  for  the  purpose  an  anaesthetic  is  to  be 
administered.  But  if  the  patient  happens  to  have  an 
opportunity  to  look  into  the  operating  room  before  this 
is  done,  he  may  chance  to  see  very  elaborate  and  care- 
ful preparations  for  his  reception.  The  surgeon  washes 
his  hands  with  a  thorougl>ness  for  which  there  is  no 
parallel  elsewhere.  Not  only  all  visible  dirt,  but  all 
dangerous  germs,  must  be  removed.  The  antiseptic 
fluid  in  which  he  scrubs  them  must  leave  them  aseptic. 
He  may  not  wipe  them  afterwards  on  a  towel,  for  that 
would  be  to  frustrate  the  process  of  securing  the  degree 
of  surgical  cleanliness  which  he  requires.  After  the 
cleansing  he  may  not  pick  up  instruments  from  where 
they  happen  to  lie,  even  though  they  also  be  sterilized. 
They  must  be  handed  to  him  on  a  tray,  or  perhaps 
he  will  touch  a  lever  with  his  foot  which  will  brinsr 
the  required  implement  within  reach  without  contamina- 
tion. Scalpel,  sponge,  bandage,  needle,  catgut  for  sew- 
ing,— all  must  be  as  clean  as  the  unexposed  nerve  or 
blood  vessel  or  muscle  to  which  they  are  soon  to  be 
applied.  He  means  to  do  a  clean  job,  and  to  have  no 
septic  poisoning.  The  light  must  be  ample  and  from  the 
right  direction.  His  eye  demands  conditions  appro- 
priate to  his  delicate  task.  If  the  operation  is  an 
instructive  one  there  will  probably  be  accommodations 
within  seeing  and  hearing  distance  for  associates  or 


138  Sodial  Work 

students.  Close  at  hand — probably  in  an  adjoining 
room  or  alcove — the  sterilizing  apparatus  is  installed, 
and  perhaps  a  pathological  laboratory  will  be  near 
enough  to  permit  the  examination  of  specimens  while 
the  patient  is  on  the  table,  to  determine  whether  a  sus- 
pected grov/th  is  or  is  not  malignant. 

MAINTENANCE    OF    HOSPITALS 

Public  hospitals  are  maintained  by  the  federal,  the 
state,  the  county,  and  the  municipal  governments.  The 
federal  Public  Health  Service,  which  has  extended  in 
many  directions  and  now  affects  many  millions  of 
persons,  originated  in  a  Merchant  Marine  Hospital 
Service,  which  it  still  conducts.  The  states  maintain 
hospitals  for  the  insane;  institutions  for  the  feeble- 
minded; frequently  for  those  who  suffer  from  tuber- 
culosis, especially  in  the  early,  curable  stages;  and  some- 
times for  other  classes,  such  as  crippled  children  or 
epileptics.  Counties  have  their  hospital  wards  in  alms- 
houses, sometimes  an  independent  general  hospital. 
In  New  York  every  county  is  required  by  law  to  main- 
tain a  special  hospital  for  tuberculosis  or  to  make  other 
provision  for  such  patients.  In  some  states  the  insane 
are  cared  for  by  counties,  under  state  supervision.  In 
some  of  the  largest  cities  it  is  the  county  which  carries 
the  burden  of  providing  the  main  institution  for  the 
care  and  treatment  of  the  sick  poor,  while  in  others  it 
is  the  city  administration,  and  in  some  instances  the 
city  and  county  are  virtually  consolidated.     Some  of 


The  Sick  139 

the  city  hospitals,  like  those  of  Boston  and  Cincinnati, 
have  been  generously  planned  and  have  enjoyed  a  con- 
tinuity of  management  such  as  is  more  frequently 
found  in  private  institutions.  New  York  has  great 
hospitals  in  each  of  three  distinct  city  departments. 
One  of  these,  known  as  Bellevue  and  Allied  Hospitals, 
governed  by  a  slowly  changing  board  of  trustees,  has 
been  emancipated  from  the  sudden  changes  incident  to 
changes  in  the  municipal  administration,  but  is  of 
course  dependent  on  the  appropriating  branch  of  the 
city  government  for  its  financial  support. 

PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  HOSPITALS 

Public  hospitals  have  had  an  immense  development 
in  the  last  few  decades.  Their  number  has  been  in- 
creased; existing  institutions  have  been  enlarged; 
standards,  professional  and  administrative,  have  been 
established  in  many  of  them,  which  offer  the  most  re- 
freshing contrast  to  those  of  earlier  years;  social  service 
to  patients  and  to  their  families  has  been  introduced; 
foolish  popular  prejudices  and  delusions  in  regard  to 
hospitals  have  been  overcome;  public  appreciation  of 
their  value  has  increased,  so  that  necessary  appropria- 
tions are  more  easily  secured ;  special  services  of  many 
kinds — for  crippled  children,  for  nervous  cases,  for 
mental  cases,  etc.,  etc. — have  been  established;  thera- 
peutic employment  has  been  introduced;  pathological 
laboratories  and  research  laboratories  have  been 
created ;  the  nursing  service  has  been  improved  through 


140  Social  Work 

training  schools;  and  above  all,  the  medical  and  surgi- 
cal service  has  advanced,  perhaps  even  more  relatively 
than  in  private  practice.  The  war  naturally  has  checked 
some  of  this  progress.  Building  has  been  so  expensive 
as  to  prevent  new  construction  and  even  to  impede 
necessary  repairs.  Doctors  and  nurses  have  been  called 
away  to  more  urgent  and  more  interesting  fields.  Even 
the  ordinary  up-keep  has  suffered  from  increasing 
costs.  These  set-backs  are  temporary,  however,  and  are 
already  in  some  cases  overcome.  The  war  will  com- 
pensate in  the  long  run  for  such  temporary  hardships 
by  the  discoveries,  the  improvement  of  surgical  tech- 
nique, and  the  spread  of  knowledge  about  disease  and 
injuries  to  which  it  has  given  rise.  For  the  actual 
injuries,  the  disease,  the  under-nourishment,  the  ner- 
vous strain,  and  the  disappearance  of  vigorous  young 
lives  resulting  from  the  war,  there  are  alas  no  com- 
pensations. 

The  growth  in  the  importance  and  usefulness  of 
public  hospitals  has  found  its  full  counterpart  in  the 
development  of  the  private  hospitals.  There  is  as 
yet  no  clearly  defined  division  of  work.  Generally 
speaking,  where  both  exist,  the  tendency  is  for  the 
public  hospitals  to  care  for  fewer  patients,  but  to  keep 
them  longer.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the  transfer  of 
patients  suffering  from  chronic  ailments  from  private 
to  public  hospitals.  Public  institutions,  supported  by 
taxation,  have  naturally  rather  less  choice  than  the 
former  in  the  reception  of  patients.     They  must  take 


The  Sick  141 

any  who  come,  if  there  is  room  for  them  and  if  their 
illness  is  such  as  to  make  hospital  care  necessary  or 
advisable.  The  same  thing  might  be  true  of  a  private 
hospital  in  a  community  in  which  there  is  no  public 
hospital,  but  if  there  are  both,  the  former  is  freer 
to  select  and  will  ordinarily  give  preference  to  acute 
illnesses,  leaving  the  more  chronic  or  lingering  cases 
to  the  public  hospital. 

The  private  hospitals  have  enjoyed  some  advantages. 
They  have  been  more  free  from  the  blight  of  politics. 
They  have  had  the  devoted  service  of  able  and  skillful 
physicians.  They  have  been  more  attractive  to  nurses. 
They  have  often  had  cordial  relations  with  good  medi- 
cal schools.  They  have  had  the  benefit  of  high  grade 
volunteer  service  on  boards  of  managers  and  advisory 
committees,  as  well  as  on  the  professional  staffs.  Their 
financial  difficulties  have  been  appalling,  but  some  have 
attracted  large  endowments,  and  some  have  shared  in 
the  success  of  the  new  movement  for  financial  federa- 
tion of  welfare  agencies. 

PUBLIC   SUPPORT   OF    PRIVATE    HOSPITALS 

Maintenance  of  non-paying  patients  in  private  hospi- 
tals is  sometimes  met  wholly  or  in  part  by  payments 
from  the  public  treasury.  Lump  sums  have  at  times 
been  appropriated  for  this  purpose  to  private  hospitals 
by  legislatures  or  local  appropriating  bodies,  under 
authority  given  in  the  charter  of  the  institution  or  by 
general  laws.    The  tendency,  however,  is  to  pay  hospi- 


142  Social  Work 

tals  a  per  diem  rate  for  the  care  of  such  patients  as 
are  accepted  by  local  authorities  as  proper  public 
charges,  both  admission  and  duration  of  treatment  at 
public  expense  being  controlled  by  the  city  or  county 
officials.  This  system  is  better  than  that  of  lump  sum 
appropriations,  in  that  it  eliminates  the  scramble  for 
public  subsidies  with  the  implied  expectation  of  some 
political  advantage  in  return  for  the  financial  favors 
thus  conferred  by  the  legislative  committees  and  mem- 
bers. It  substitutes  an  enforceable  contract,  which 
implies  official  inspection  and  quick  correction  of  any 
neglect  or  ill  treatment.  Even  when  payments  are 
made  on  the  per  capita  per  diem  system,  there  remain 
many  occasions  for  friction.  If  the  city  has  its  own 
hospitals,  the  authorities  will  naturally  prefer  that 
patients  should  be  cared  for  in  them  rather  than  at 
the  city's  expense  in  private  hospitals.  It  will  prob- 
ably cost  less;  but,  even  aside  from  this,  in  order  to 
make  the  medical  and  nursing  service  attractive,  in  order 
to  justify  appropriations  adequate  to  maintain  a  bal- 
anced and  comprehensive  hospital  system,  in  order  to 
keep  the  prestige  of  the  public  hospital  on  a  par  with, 
if  not  above,  that  of  the  private  hospitals,  the  city 
administration  will  naturally  insist  upon  the  use  of  its 
own  hospital  facilities  to  their  full  capacity  before  ap- 
proving payments  for  care  in  private  institutions. 
Patients  may,  however,  prefer  to  go  into  the  private 
hospitals,  possibly  for  merely  sentimental  reasons,  but 
possibly  also  for  very  legitimate  practical  reasons.   The 


The  Sick  143 

superintendent  of  one  great  private  hospital  goes  so 
far  as  to  insist  upon  the  right  of  any  sick  patient  or 
his  family  to  choose,  when  his  life  may  be  at  stake, 
whether  he  will  be  cared  for  in  a  public  or  in  a  private 
hospital. 

This  view  would  not  be  generally  approved.  As  a 
rule,  when  public  subsidies  or  payments  are  made  to 
private  hospitals  at  all,  it  would  be  only  for  those 
patients  who  cannot  be  cared  for  satisfactorily  to  the 
authorities  in  public  hospitals,  because  they  have  no 
vacant  beds,  or  because,  in  an  emergency,  the  distance 
would  be  so  great  as  to  endanger  the  life  or  well-being 
of  the  patient,  or  for  some  similar  reason.  Even  more 
general,  and  in  the  author's  opinion  more  justifiable, 
is  the  complete  separation  of  the  financial  support  of 
public  and  private  institutions,  reserving  public  revenues 
for  public  hospitals,  controlled  and  managed  by  public 
authorities,  and  expecting  private  hospitals  to  be  sup- 
ported by  voluntary  contributions,  endowments,  and 
payments  of  patients.  That  voluntary  gifts  may  also 
be  made  to  public  hospitals  goes  without  saying. 

VALUE    OF   THE    MODERN    HOSPITAL 

The  modern  hospital,  well  equipped  and  administered, 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  creditable  of  the 
institutions  to  which  science  and  philanthropy  have 
given  rise.  It  is  at  once  a  nursery  of  the  art  of  healing, 
a  laboratory  of  research,  a  co-operative  enterprise  in 
which  surgeons,  pathologists,  and  others  who  serve  in 


144  Social  Work 

the  various  fields  of  medicine,  touch  elbows  with  public 
spirited  men  and  women  who  provide  funds,  look  after 
investments,  or  participate  in  shaping  and  carrying  out 
the  educational  and  social  policies.  Operating  rooms, 
sterilizing  apparatus,  research  laboratories,  lecture 
rooms,  ambulance  service,  nurses'  quarters,  administra- 
tive offices,  are  usually  features  of  the  equipment,  in 
addition  to  the  wards  for  each  class  of  patients  and 
the  private  rooms  when  provision  is  also  made  for 
them,  and  the  kitchens,  special  diet  kitchens,  laundries, 
heating  and  lighting  plant,  and  any  other  necessary 
services.  All  this  involves  large  investment.  As  the 
hospital  is  usually  located  in  or  near  a  populous  center, 
the  cost  of  land  and  buildings,  wages  to  labor,  and  the 
cost  of  living  both  for  personnel  and  patients,  is  on  the 
upper  rather  than  the  lower  levels.  The  demands  of 
aseptic  surgery  are  exacting.  Many  of  the  drugs  and 
remedies  required — salvarsan,  for  example — are  ex- 
pensive. The  gift  of  a  gram  of  radium  to  Madame 
Curie,  costing  $100,000,  illustrates  the  dependence  of 
progress  in  the  underlying  scientific  knowledge  on  ade- 
quate financial  resources. 

Fortunately  the  appeal,  both  to  humanity  and  to  the 
sense  of  civic  responsibility,  may  be  made  commen- 
surate with  the  need.  The  cost  is  great,  but  not  rela- 
tively to  the  value  of  the  service.  The  hospital  saves 
life,  prolongs  the  working  period,  lessens  the  sum  total 
of  human  suffering,  restores  the  bread-winner,  the 
mother,  the  sick  child,  to  those  who  would  consider  no 


The  Sick  145 

price  t6o  great  to  pay  for  such  a  service.  As  the 
importance  of  prompt  and  skillful  attendance  in  critical 
illness  is  appreciated;  as  the  advantages  of  hospital 
care  in  lingering  fevers  and  in  maternity  confinement 
are  better  understood;  as  the  quiet,  the  regulated  diet, 
the  continuous  observation,  the  authoritative  discipline, 
of  a  hospital  make  their  record  in  the  recollection  of 
the  increasing  number  of  patients  who  profit  by  them, 
the  public  opinion  on  which  both  requests  for  appropria- 
tions and  appeals  for  gifts  must  rely  is  steadily  devel- 
oped and  confirmed. 

No  hospital  is  perfect,  since  it  is  a  human  institu- 
tion. People  sometimes  even  yet  are  neglected,  exposed 
to  infection,  fall  into  the  hands  of  incompetent  physi- 
cians and  careless  nurses.  But  the  ideal  is  more  and 
more  clearly  seen.  Standards  are  established.  An  ex- 
cellent special  literature  of  hospital  administration  and 
service  exists  and  is  constantly  increased.  Official  in- 
spection exposes  and  corrects  grosser  abuses,  and 
humane,  sensitive,  and  efficient  professional  and  lay 
workers  are  found  both  in  public  and  in  private  hospi- 
tals everywhere.  A  fine  tradition  of  religious  devo- 
tion has  come  down  through  the  centuries  in  Catholic, 
Jewish,  and  Protestant  hospitals.  An  equally  fine  pro- 
fessional spirit,  interwoven  with  the  religious  motive, 
has  its  historical  origins  far  back  in  antiquity,  but  has 
transformed  the  hospitals  under  the  influence  of  the 
new  medical  schools  into  veritable  temples  of  science. 
The 'conception  that  the  community  has  a  responsibility 


146  Social  JV.ork 

to  prevent  preventable  disease,  to  assume  the  burdens 
of  illness  which  the  individual  cannot  carry,  to  free 
social  progress  from  the  reproach  that  the  very  proc- 
esses which  mean  prosperity  and  well-being  for  the 
strong  may  mean  the  destruction  of  the  weak,  this  new 
view  of  health  as  in  large  part  a  social  responsibility, 
is  in  complete  harmony  with  true  religion  and  with  the 
best  traditions  of  the  medical  profession.  The  hospital 
at  its  best,  with  its  social  services,  embodies  this  three- 
fold program,  religious,  medical  and  social.  Consola- 
tion, comfort,  relief  for  bodily  suffering,  reassurance 
as  to  the  needs  of  the  family  if  they  are  involved,  as 
they  usually  are  in  serious  illness,  lessening  of  the 
danger  of  infecting  others  with  contagious  disease,  ad- 
vancement of  knowledge  and  skill,  training  of  those 
who  are  to  treat  or  nurse  the  sick  in  their  homes,  re- 
lease of  relatives  for  their  regular  occupations,  but 
above  all  the  cure  or  alleviation  of  disease  by  surgical 
or  medical  treatment  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions— such  are  the  objects  of  the  modern  hospital, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether,  with  all  its  imperfections, 
any  other  comparable  institution — university,  law  court, 
public  press — comes  nearer  to  fulfilling  its  legitimate 
purpose. 

HOME  CARE  OF  THE  SICK 

Dispensaries,  health  centers,  medical  services  in  in- 
dustrial establishments,  and  other  adaptations  or  differ- 
entiations from  the  hospital,  carry  a  similar  program 


The  Sick  147 

into  homes  and  places  of  employment.  Visiting  nurses' 
associations  are  the  most  important  and  among  the  most 
widely  diffused  of  the  social  agencies  which  thus  care 
for  the  sick  at  home,  usually  without  charge  if  neces- 
sary, frequently  with  a  modest  charge  on  an  hourly 
basis,  proportionate  to  the  ability  of  patients  to  pay. 
Such  associations  are  of  course  dependent  on  voluntary 
contributions  for  a  large  part  of  their  expense.  Health 
departments  now  frequently  have  a  large  corps  of 
visiting  nurses  to  supplement  their  physicians.  Indus- 
trial hygiene  may  include  home  visiting  of  the  families 
of  the  workers.  School  hygiene  may  include  home  vis- 
iting of  the  families  of  pupils.  Psychiatric  clinics  may 
include  home  visiting  of  mental  patients  and  their  rela- 
tives. The  hospital  itself  may  do  a  very  substantial 
part  of  its  work  in  visiting  discharged  patients  and  in 
such  advice  and  instruction  in  their  homes  as  may 
lessen  the  probability  of  the  need  of  hospital  care  for 
other  members  of  the  family. 

TREATMENT  FOR  ALL 

Formerly  much  was  heard  in  the  cities  aboat  the 
"abuse  of  medical  charity."  Complaint  was  made 
that  many  people  came  to  the  free  clinics  and  dispen- 
saries who  could  well  afford  to  pay  a  private  physician. 
Laws  were  passed  requiring  dispensaries  to  be  licensed 
and  authorizing  state  boards  of  charities  to  prescribe 
rules  under  which  free  dispensary  treatment  should 
be  given.    These  rules  usually  called  for  a  registration 


148  Social  Work 

of  patients  and  a  visit  to  their  homes  in  doubtful  cases, 
or  at  least  a  signed  declaration  of  their  inability  to  pay 
for  treatment. 

Such  complaints  have  some  basis,  but  are  not  to  be 
taken  too  seriously.  Most  of  those  who  are  able  to 
pay  are  not  so  much  in  search  of  free  or  even  cheap 
medical  service  as  they  are  in  search  of  competent, 
skillful  service,  and  the  fact  is  that  better  service  is 
frequently  available  in  the  free  clinics  than  could  be 
obtained  by  those  who  can  pay  only  moderate  though 
reasonable  fees.  The  matter  has  largely  adjusted  itself, 
partly  through  the  registration  of  patients  and  partly 
through  the  home  visits  which  are  made  not  to  expose 
wrongful  demands  for  free  treatment  but  to  follow  up 
the  examination  and  prescriptions  of  the  clinic  with 
appropriate  advice  in  regard  to  diet,  sleeping  arrange- 
ments, dressings,  baths,  sanitary  arrangements,  occu- 
pation, or  any  other  matters  on  which  instruction  is 
needed. 

The  extension  of  health  care  is  far  more  necessary 
than  restriction.  The  principle  that  all  who  can  should 
pay  their  own  doctor  and  nurse  is  sound  enough  until 
some  better  plan  is  devised,  but  the  principle  that  all 
who  need  professional  attention  should  have  it,  and 
should  have  it  promptly,  and  that  it  should  be  as  good 
as  the  existing  state  of  the  science  of  medicine  permits, 
regardless  of  the  patient's  financial  circumstances,  is 
making  its  way  to  general  acceptance.  Whether  this 
will  lead  to  a  general  system  of  state  medicine,  com- 


The  Sick  149 

parable  with  the  pnbhc  school  system  in  education,  or 
to  a  system  of  health  insurance,  which  deals  with  the 
financial  aspect  of  sickness,  or  to  some  entirely  different 
plan,  is  still  uncertain;  but  that  there  is  to  be  a  radical 
change  which  will  emancipate  health  in  some  way  from 
the  fetters  of  the  existing  acquisitive  economic  system, 
as  we  have  already  emancipated  elementary  and  second- 
ary education,  seems  reasonably  certain.  In  any  social- 
ized system  of  public  hygiene,  there  will  be  provision 
for  free  periodical  examination,  regardless  of  known 
ailments,  and  there  will  be  some  financial  provision  for 
the  families  of  those  who,  like  the  tuberculous,  may 
need  long  continued  sanatorium  care  or  a  complete 
change  of  residence  or  of  occupation. 


CHAPTER    X 
THE  HANDICAPPED 


Most  of  us  are  more  or  less  handicapped  physically. 
The  industrial  and  intellectual  work  of  the  world  is 
done  by  persons  suffering  more  or  less  from  eye-strain, 
headache,  indigestion,  imperfect  hearing,  bronchial  af- 
fections, flat-foot,  or  some  of  the  other  numerous  limi- 
tations to  which  man  is  subject.  Even  in  recruiting 
an  army  physical  perfection  cannot  be  required,  but 
only  a  relative  degree  of  freedom  from  those  defects 
and  diseases  which  would  especially  interfere  with  mili- 
tary service;  and  even  with  such  allowances,  only  sev- 
enty per  cent  of  the  American  men  drafted  for  service 
in  1916-18  were  found  to  be  fully  qualified. 

PHYSICAL   HANDICAPS 

(Whether  an  individual  needs  help  in  overcoming  the 
handicap  of  his  physical  disability  depends  on  the 
degree  and  nature  of  the  disability  and  the  endowments 
he  has  which  may  be  drawn  upon  to  off-set  it.  There 
are  some  kinds  of  affliction,  however,  which  presume 
the  need  of  some  special  provision,  even  independently 
of  financial   circumstances.      Chief   among  these  are 

150 


The  Handicapped  151 

blindness,  deafness,  and  serious  crippling  of  the  body. 
The  deaf,  the  blind,  and  the  cripple  usually  need  above 
all  an  education  and  such  vocational  guidance  and  voca- 
tional training  as  will  make  them  self-supporting  and 
valuable  members  of  society.  They  may  be  able  to 
take  advantage  of  the  ordinary  schools,  or  in  a  populous 
neighborhood  there  may  be  enough  of  them  to  justify 
forming  special  classes  for  those  who  like  the  blind 
or  deaf  mutes  require  special  facilities. 

NEEDS  OF  THE  BLIND 

There  are  obvious  advantages  in  a  special  institution 
for  the  blind,  where  they  may  be  protected  from  the 
dangers  resulting  from  lack  of  sight,  and  where,  along 
with  instruction  in  the  Braille  system  of  raised  charac- 
ters to  be  read  by  touch,  and  such  teaching  as  they 
might  obtain  at  home  or  in  an  ordinary  school,  they 
can  also  master  a  trade  or  prepare  themselves  more 
easily  and  satisfactorily  for  whatever  profession  or 
occupation  they  are  fitted  to  follow.  Gifted  individuals 
may  soon  exhaust  these  special  advantages  and  speedily 
reach  a  position  in  which  they  would  gain  more  from 
association  with  seeing  persons  interested  in  their  own 
field.  Even  from  the  beginning  some  have  relatives 
or  friends  who  are  in  position  to  engage  the  services 
of  teachers,  readers,  and  attendants  who  can  do  more 
for  them  than  the  staff  of  an  institution.  Such  indi- 
vidual attendance  and  tutoring,  however,  will  be  rare, 
and  will  seldom  be  necessary. 


152  Social  Work 

If  the  loss  of  sight  occurs  after  one  already  has  the 
elements  of  a  general  education,  the  problem  is  different 
from  that  of  educating  and  preparing  for  useful  life 
one  who  is  blind  from  birth  or  infancy.  Many  in- 
stances occur  of  the  successful  prosecution  of  ordinary 
vocations — teaching,  business,  even  the  practice  of 
medicine — by  those  who  become  totally  blind,  and  one 
of  the  most  beneficial  services  to  the  blind  is  to  acquaint 
them  for  their  encouragement  with  such  instances,  with 
due  care,  of  course,  not  to  excite  false  and  unreasonable 
expectations.  That  blindness  justifies  a  life  of  de- 
pendence, whether  by  mendicancy  or  by  becoming  a 
burden  on  relatives,  or  even  by  living  on  inherited  or 
otherwise  unearned  income,  is  an  utterly  unwarranted 
assumption — one  which  has  been  widely  accepted  and 
has  done  incalculable  mischief. 

PREVENTION  OF  BLINDNESS 

Social  work  interests  itself  in  the  blind,  first,  to 
restore  the  sight  if  possible;  second,  to  develop  the 
physical  and  mental  capacities  of  the  one  who  is  de- 
prived of  sight,  for  the  sake  of  his  own  satisfaction 
and  happiness  and  in  order  that  like  others  he  may  be 
a  social  creditor  rather  than  a  debtor;  and  third,  by 
finding  out  about  the  causes  of  blindness,  to  prevent  it 
in  others.  It  has  become  known  that  congenital  blind- 
ness is  often  due  to  a  gonorrheal  infection  at  birth, 
which  can  be  prevented  by  washing  the  eyes  of  the 
newly  born  child  with  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver, 


The  Handicapped  153 

and  this  simple  and  harmless  precaution  is  now  com- 
pulsory in  some  states.  Eye-sight  is  frequently  de- 
stroyed by  occupational  injuries  against  which  protec- 
tive measures  are  possible.  Factory  laws  prescribe  such 
protection,  and  in  addition  compensation  laws  give  to 
employers  financial  inducements  for  diminishing  such 
dangers.  The  "safety -first"  movement  has  decreased 
the  chances  of  blindness,  as  of  the  loss  of  life  and. 
limb.  Prompt  and  skillful  surgical  attention  when 
accidents  do  occur  will  often  save  the  sight  of  one  eye 
if  not  of  both.  Increasing  attention  to  defects  of  vision 
in  children,  with  provision  of  corrective  glasses  or  other 
appropriate  measures  for  overcoming  the  defect,  should 
eventually  reduce  the  number  of  cases  of  blindness, 
while  it  also  increases  general  efficiency  and  health 
and  the  sum  total  of  "eye-power"  available  in  the 
world. 

Thus  the  prevention  of  blindness,  the  best  education 
and  vocational  guidance  of  the  blind,  the  correction  and 
improvement  of  defective  vision,  the  surgical  or  medical 
care  of  any  injured  or  diseased  organ  of  sight,  and 
the  suitable  maintenance  of  the  unfortunate  ones  who 
by  reason  of  age  or  other  infirmity  in  addition  to  loss 
of  sight  are  necessarily  dependent,  are  typical  aspects 
of  a  social  program  in  reference  to  one  kind  of  physi- 
cal disability. 

In  the  almshouses  and  other  institutions  for  aged 
and  infirm,  and  living  alone  at  home  on  some  meagre 
public  or  private  allowance,  are  some  who  are  greatly 


154  Social  Work 

in  need  of  friendly  visits  in  their  loneliness  and  of  aid 
in  finding  such  occupation  as  will  enable  them  to  pass 
their  idle  time  agreeably  or  in  some  way  modestly  use- 
ful to  others. 

THE  DEAF 

The  deaf  are  less  obviously,  but  often  in  fact  quite 
as  seriously,  handicapped  as  the  blind.  They  need 
to  learn  lip-reading  and  speech  as  the  blind  learn  Braille. 
They  require  special  teachers  skilled  in  overcoming  the 
difficulties  which  arise  from  lack  of  hearing,  and  special 
guidance  in  the  choice  of  a  vocation.  As  with  the 
blind,  there  are  advantages  in  a  period  of  residence  in 
a  specialized  institution.  In  both  cases,  however,  these 
institutions  should  be  regarded  as  schools,  not  as  asy- 
lums. It  is  pupils,  not  ''inmates,"  for  whose  needs 
they  provide.  The  state  has  an  interest  in  making  the 
best  possible  citizens  of  them,  just  as  it  has  in  making 
good  citizens  of  ordinary  day  pupils  in  the  public 
schools.  Food  and  lodging  are  only  incidental,  just  as 
maintenance  is  a  necessary  incident  but  not  the  main 
purpose  of  hospital  care  in  acute  illness. 

The  prevention  of  deafness,  by  the  fullest  possible 
investigation  of  injuries  resulting  from  illness  or  acci- 
dent and  of  the  conditions  under  which  deaf -mutism 
may  be  inherited,  is  a  part  of  the  task  of  society  in 
this,  as  in  the  analogous  social  problems  of  blindness 
and  other  physical  handicap. 


The  Handicapped  155 

THE   CRIPPLED 

Those  who  have  suffered  amputation  of  an  arm  or- 
a  leg,  or  who  are  crippled  by  rheumatism,  by  tuber- 
culosis of  bones  or  joints,  by  infantile  paralysis,  or 
otherwise,  may  require  social  action  analogous  to  that 
for  the  blind  or  the  deaf.  The  great  war  has  left 
millions  of  young  men  in  European  countries  and 
thousands  in  our  own  unable  because  of  such  injuries 
to  return  to  their  previous  occupations.  It  has  been 
necessary  not  only  to  treat  their  wounds  and  injuries, 
and  to  fit  them  with  artificial  limbs  or  other  appliances, 
but  to  give  them  a  new  vocational  education,  through 
which  they  may  regain  an  honorable  place  in  the  avoca- 
tions of  peace,  in  lieu  of  that  for  which  their  war 
service  unfitted  them. 

PROVISION  FOR  BLIND,  DEAF,  AND  CRIPPLED 

The  classic  method  by  which  society  has  chosen  to 
provide  for  the  blind  and  the  crippled  and  others  with 
serious  physical  handicaps  has  been  to  allow  them  free- 
dom— even  encouragement — to  beg  in  public,  supple- 
menting this  to  some  extent,  especially  in  the  case  of 
disabled  soldiers,  by  institutional  care  and  pensions. 
Although  generally  discredited  in  theory,  begging  still 
as  generally  persists  in  practice,  and  is  countenanced 
by  the  unthinking  public.  While  the  outlines  of  a 
program  which  would  provide  intelligently  and  ade- 


156  Social  Work 

quately  for  them  are  now  visible,  comparatively  little 
of  it  is  yet  in  operation. 

We  have  done  most  for  the  deaf  and  blind  children 
of  school  age.  All  the  states  have  broadly  recognized 
their  obligation  to  give  elementary  instruction  to  them. 
There  were  72  state  institutions  and  53  under  private 
auspices  in  1910,  and  the  editor  of  the  latest  Census 
report  on  Benevolent  Institutions  goes  so  far  as  to 
say  that  "there  is  probably  no  one  class  of  persons  for 
whose  education  and  training  such  complete  provision 
is  made'' — as  for  the  blind  and  deaf  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  that  is  to  say,  who  are  so  deaf  or  so 
blind  as  to  be  clearly  unfitted  for  ordinary  schools. 
There  are  many  border-line  cases,  however,  who  fall 
between  the  two  kinds  of  educational  institutions;  and 
there  are  many  more  all  along  the  line  from  lack  of 
sight  or  hearing  to  normal  use  of  those  senses  w^ho 
need  some  special  kind  of  care  or  attention  which  is 
not  available.  Little  children  below  school  age,  more- 
over, have  been  generally  neglected.  Institutions  have 
made  a  practice  of  receiving  them  only  after  they 
have  reached  an  age  at  which  it  is  thought  reasonable 
for  them  to  be  removed  from  their  home  for  this 
purpose — i.  e.,  at  nine  or  thereabouts.  In  many  respects 
it  is  desirable  that  they  should  take  at  an  earlier  age 
the  first  steps  in  the  special  instruction  which  they 
need  as  distinct  from  seeing  or  hearing  children.  Ac- 
cordingly, special  kindergartens  for  blind  and  for  deaf- 
mute  children  have  been  established,  both  in  some  of 


TJie  Handicapped  157 

the  institutions  and  independently.  Facilities  for  this 
pre-school  training  should  be  extended  until  it  reaches 
all  who  would  benefit  by  it. 

For  crippled  children  much  less  has  been  done  than 
for  the  blind  and  deaf.  After  medicine  and  surgery 
have  done  their  part  in  curing  or  supplementing  their 
disability  they  do  not  need  so  much.  They  do  not 
need  a  special  kind  of  education,  but  special  facilities 
for  transportation,  and  special  desk  and  chairs 
and  other  furniture,  to  make  the  ordinary  educa- 
tional facilities  accessible  to  them.  They  do  need, 
like  the  blind  and  the  deaf,  intelligent  vocational 
guidance  and  assistance  in  getting  good  prepara- 
tion for  an  occupation  in  which  their  particular 
disability  will  not  be  a  handicap.  Orthopaedic  treat- 
ment, with  incidental  general  education,  is  still  avail- 
able for  only  a  small  proportion  of  those  who  need  it. 
Some  efforts  have  been  made  in  the  larger  cities  to 
hunt  out  the  crippled  children  and  make  it  possible 
for  them  to  get  to  school  and  to  be  comfortable  there, 
and  to  have  some  social  life  and  diversions  outside  their 
own  homes  and  more  interests  at  home.  The  epidemic 
of  infantile  paralysis  a  few  years  ago  stimulated  in- 
terest in  all  these  questions. 

Maintenance  is  incidentally  and  necessarily  provided 
for  all  the  blind  and  deaf  and  crippled  children  who 
^re  cared  for  in  institutions.  For  these  hospital  or 
institutional  children  even  greater  individualization  is 
desirable,   more   intensive   and  painstaking  and  long- 


158  Social  Work 

continued  concentration,  Laura  Bridgman  and  Helen 
Keller  illustrate  what  extraordinary  returns  may  be 
obtained  from  such  intensive  effort.  Many  less  familiar 
and  less  striking  but  still  instructive  instances  could  be 
supplied  from  the  records  of  institutional  teachers  and 
from  the  experience  of  private  instructors  and  pro- 
fessional practitioners  with  individuals  of  good  native 
ability,  handicapped  by  what  would  'have  appeared  to 
to  be  an  insuperable  disability. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  usual  school  age,  the  existing 
facilities  for  the  social  care  of  the  blind,  deaf,  crippled, 
and  epileptic  are  also  inadequate. 

Commissions  for  the  blind  have  been  established  in 
a  few  states  to  make  a  registry,  to  give  information 
about  special  opportunities  for  employment,  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  those  whom  they  find  to  be  in  need  of 
any  kind  of  service,  to  co-ordinate  existing  activities,  to 
investigate  the  causes  of  blindness  and  encourage  meas- 
ures for  its  prevention,  and  for  other  similar  purposes. 
Individual  vocational  training  and  guidance  and  the 
diffusion  of  information  about  suitable  occupations  are 
the  best  service  which  such  commissions,  and  the  well- 
disposed  citizens  whose  efforts  they  are  intended  to 
stimulate  and  co-ordinate,  can  render, 

PENSIONS 

For  those  who  become  blind  or  deaf  or  crippled  in 
acfult  life  even  less  has  been  done,  except  in  the  way 


The  Handicapped  159 

of  providing  a  money  payment  in  certain  cases.  Pen- 
sions for  disabled  soldiers  have  been  the  rule  in  the 
United  States  since  the  earliest  days  of  the  colonies, 
and  in  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  compensation  for 
those  injured  in  industry  has  been  established  by  law 
in  nearly  all  the  states.  Allowances  from  the  public 
treasury  are  in  some  places  provided  for  the  indigent 
blind.  A  pension,  however,  or  compensation,  does  not 
of  itself  ensure  that  a  disabled  man  will  not  take  the 
easy  downward  path  to  discouragement  and  deteriora- 
tion. By  no  means  all,  moreover,  of  those  who  be- 
come disabled  in  adult  life,  receive  their  injury  in  mili- 
tary service  or  in  an  industrial  accident.  The  efforts 
which  have  been  made  to  help  the  disabled  adult  to 
keep  his  place  as  a  productive  member  of  society  or 
to  restore  him  to  that  place  after  he  has  taken  the  easy 
path  to  chronic  dependence  have  been  modest  and  few. 
Individual  employers  and  friends  and  social  workers 
have  given  thought  to  individual  cases.  Charitable 
societies  have  supplied  artificial  Hmbs  and  have  tried 
to  find  employment.  Work-rooms  have  been  main- 
tained for  the  blind,  and  one  or  twq  classes  to  give 
instruction  in  selected  trades  to  the  crippled.  Several 
social  agencies  have  conducted  special  employment 
bureaus  for  the  handicapped. 

Whether  the  blind  and  others  who  are  equally  handi- 
capped by  some  physical  disability,  such  as  paralysis 
or  amputation  of  both  arms  or  both  legs,  should  re- 
ceive a  pension  from  the  state  merely  by  virtue  of  their 


160  Social  Work 

disability,  is  a  question  on  which  there  are  sharp 
differences  of  opinion.  It  is  similar  to  the  question 
of  old-age  pensions  and  child  welfare  allowances  (see 
pages  107,  125).  Pensions  to  the  blind  are  established 
by  law  in  a  few  states  and  are  given  in  others  by 
local  authorities  under  their  general  power  of  taxation 
for  poor  relief. 

It  is  true  that  what  society  gives  to  a  blinded  man 
or  woman  is  not  a  pension,  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
word  is  properly  used  for  an  ex-soldier  or  an  ex-civil- 
service  employee.  It  is  not  a  deferred  wage  payment. 
It  is  also  true  that  a  money  allowance  seldom  fully 
solves  the  problem.  The  blind,  like  others,  need  also 
occupation,  the  chance  to  earn,  the  satisfaction  of  being 
useful.  They  often  need  counsel,  encouragement,  aid 
in  making  new  adjustments.  They  are  quite  as  often 
able  to  give  such  counsel  and  encouragement  to  others. 
They  have  worries,  temptations,  baffling  obstacles. 
They  have  also  resources  which  the  shrewdest  investi- 
gator would  never  discover.  These  experiences  they 
have  not,  however,  as  blind  persons,  but  as  human 
beings.  It  is  absurd  to  try  to  standardize  their  "treat- 
ment" as  "blind  dependents."  Different  things  need 
to  be  done  both  by  and  for  different  persons.  A  uni- 
form doling  out  of  fixed  annual  or  quarterly  or  weekly 
pensions  without  discrimination,  with  no  knowledge 
of  the  individual  capacity  of  the  pensioner  in  the  use 
of  the  money,  with  no  effort  to  discover  whether  there 
are  physical  or  mental  or  economic  or  social  difficulties 


The  Handicapped  161 

which  might  be  removed,  has  the  stupidity  of  the  worst 
poHtical  poor  reHef. 

The  reformer's  energy  and  passion  should  be  directed 
against  the  uncompensated  loss  of  eyesight  in  mines 
or  factories  by  occupational  injuries;  against  the  failure 
of  society  to  give  to  children  blind  from  birth  the  best 
education  and  vocational  training  which  they  are  cap- 
able of  receiving,  whatever  its  cost;  and  against  any 
failure  to  make  use  in  later  life,  either  in  an  ordinary 
trade  or  profession,  or  if  necessary  in  an  institution 
or  special  workshop,  of  the  developed  powers  of  the 
disabled  adult  in  return  for  the  means  of  livelihood. 
It  is  a  question  of  far  more  than  a  pension,  not  less. 
What  the  normal  human  being  without  eyesight  has 
a  right  to  expect  is  participation  in  the  social  life  of 
the  community.  During  infancy,  childhood,  and  adol- 
escence society  should  be  investing  each  year  more  than 
any  pension  allowance  now  made  or  proposed  would 
be  likely  to  cover.  Normally  this  investment  will  make 
unnecessary  an  allowance  after  the  earning  age  has 
been  reached.  If  through  other  cause — nervous  in- 
stability, social  incompatibility,  physical  weakness — 
the  educated  blind  person  requires  either  financial  or 
professional  assistance,  this  should  of  course  be 
the  more  promptly  and  more  generously  forth-coming 
because  of  the  original  handicap,  but  it  should  not 
be  expected  or  invited  by  special  advance  provision. 

After  becoming  an  independent  worker,  the  blind, 
like  others,  may  wisely  insure  himself  against  physl- 


162  Social  Work 

cal  breakdown,  and  the  state,  in  administering  and 
supplementing  the  insurance  funds  collected  from  in- 
sured employers  and  wage-earners,  may  take  a  liberal 
view  of  the  benefits  w^hich  should  be  provided  in  par- 
ticular instances.  Even  if  insurance  funds  are  con- 
siderably enlarged  by  taxation,  it  might  be  more  eco- 
nomical, if  they  are  administered  strictly  and  wisely, 
than  the  care  of  the  same  patients  wholly  as  public 
charges,  and  it  would  certainly  be  more  economical 
than  the  neglect  of  early  cases  which  is  common  in  the 
absence  of  any  system  of  health  insurance. 

Pensions  for  the  blind  are  therefore  less  than  their 
due  and  in  the  wrong  direction.  Education  with  main- 
tenance, self-supporting  occupation,  compensation  in 
the  case  of  industrial  accident,  insurance  in  case  of  ill- 
ness, professional  treatment  when  necessary,  and  respect 
for  personality  under  all  circumstances,  are  their  right- 
ful due,  and  they  have  the  same  obligation  as  others 
to  help  to  create  the  public  opinion  which  will  secure 
such  rights  for  themselves  and  for  others. 

RE-EDUCATION   AND   ECONOMIC   REHABILITATION 

The  war,  by  forcing  on  our  attention  unprecedented 
numbers  of  disabled  men,  under  the  most  appealing 
circumstances,  made  us  realize  how  sadly  we  had  ne- 
glected those  who  are  maimed  and  blinded  in  the 
ordinary  routine  of  civil  life;  and  out  of  the  attempts 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  men  disabled  in  the  war  has 
developed  a  new  ideal  and  a  new  program  of  action 


The  Handicapped  163 

equally  applicable  to  disabled  civilians.  The  new  pro- 
gram includes  not  only  a  money  "compensation,"  but 
also  the  completest  possible  physical  restoration,  includ- 
ing functional  re-education  and  provision  of  the  desir- 
able prosthesis;  and  economic  rehabilitation,  including 
when  necessary  re-education  for  earning  a  living,  and 
help  in  finding  employment  or  in  becoming  an  inde- 
pendent proprietor  of  a  business  or  farm. 

These  principles  found  fullest  expression  in  the 
measures  adopted  for  the  benefit  of  our  disabled  soldiers 
and  sailors,  but  the  incredible  inefficiency  of  administra- 
tion has  obscured  them,  to  speak  with  moderation,  and 
has  made  our  actual  treatment  thus  far  of  those  whom 
the  system  was  intended  to  benefit  a  national  disgrace. 
It  is  confidently  expected  that  the  new  ideals  born  of 
the  war  will  affect  favorably  our  provisions  for  those 
disabled  in  civilian  life.  Thus  far  the  chief  evidence 
of  this  is  found  in  the  federal  aid  which  is  now  granted 
to  the  states,  in  proportion  to  their  population  and  the 
amount  they  appropriate  for  the  purpose,  for  the  re- 
habilitation of  industrial  cripples,  and  in  one  or  two 
attempts  by  private  philanthropy  to  give  vocational  re- 
education to  crippled  adults,  to  place  them  in  positions, 
and  to  help  them  in  other  ways  to  re-establish  them- 
selves in  economic  and  social  life.  It  is  inevitable, 
however,  that  ultimately  the  advances  in  technical  and 
professional  skill  due  to  the  experiences  of  the  war, 
which  have  revolutionized  the  possibilities  in  the  way 
of  artificial  arms  and  legs  and  eyes  and  faces  and  of 


i  164  Social  Work 

functional  re-education,  and  the  new  glimpse  which 
we  have  had  of  the  possibihties  of  economic  re-educa- 
tion and  re-estabhshment,  Avill  eventually  result  in  a 
more  general  acceptance  of  the  new  ideals  and  more 
adequate  social  agencies  for  making  them  effective. 
The  human  individual  has  so  varied  an  assortment  of 
endowments,  and  modern  society  can  utilize  such  frag- 
ments of  an  individual,  that  even  "half-men,"  much 
more  three-quarter  men  and  ninety-per-cent  men,  can 
frequently,  if  there  be  will,  energy,  and  resourcefulness, 
be  as  useful  as  they  were  when  they  were  whole — 
some  even  more  useful.  A  man  who  is  lame  or  blind 
or  deaf  or  handicapped  by  a  racing  heart  or  scarified 
lung  tissue  may  still,  ordinarily,  lead  a  productive  life 
and  have  his  honorable  place  in  society. 

THE    MENTALLY    HANDICAPPED 

The  insane,  the  feeble-minded  and  the  epileptic,  and 
the  mental  and  nervous  cases  which  may  end  in  suicide, 
insanity,  or  other  tragedy,  if  not  wisely  treated,  present 
a  wide  diversity  of  special  problems — institutional, 
domestic,  and  individual.  It  is  wholesome  to  remember 
that,  just  as  few  of  us  are  completely  able-bodied,  so 
most  of  us  go  through  life  more  or  less  mentally  handi- 
capped. Between  the  mental  disability  of  which  the 
possessor  may  never  become  conscious  and  complete 
imbecility  or  incurable  insanity  there  are  all  the  possi- 
ble gradations. 


The  Handicapped  165 

THE  MENTALLY  DEFECTIVE 

The  insane  are  suffering  from  illness :  acute  or 
chronic,  curable  or  incurable.  This  illness  affects  their 
reasoning  powers;  their  mind  has  lost  itself,  wholly 
or  partially,  temporarily  or  permanently.  The  feeble- 
minded or  mentally  defective  are  in  a  different  state. 
Their  mind  is  congenitally  sub-normal.  No  recovery 
is  to  be  expected.  Their  mind  cannot  find  itself,  for, 
like  the  eyes  which  have  had  no  sight  from  birth, 
something  is  definitely  lacking.  Intelligence  is  limited 
by  the  endowment  of  nature,  and  from  moron  to  idiot 
this  endowment  is  in  varying  degrees  lacking  to  all 
those  who  are  called  feeble-minded. 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  they  are  incapable 
of  learning.  They  may  be  taught,  trained,  developed, 
within  limits.  What  those  limits  are  can  now  be  deter- 
mined for  each  individual  with  reasonable  assurance. 
On  the  basis  of  their  "intelligence  quotient"  and  their 
response  to  early  training,  they  may  readily  be  classified 
as  needing  permanent  custodial  care,  or  close  oversight 
after  institutional  training,  or  merely  special  considera- 
tion in  the  choice  of  a  suitable  occupation  and  perhaps 
protection  from  time  to  time  in  some  crisis.  Some 
high-grade  morons  may  never  be  recognized  as  such. 
Good  fortune  may  guide  them  through  home  and  school 
life  without  any  special  untoward  incident.  They  may 
slip  into  a  sheltered  position  and  continue  to  get  along 
as  well  as  most  of  their  neighbors.     Disaster  \\\\\  come, 


166  Social  Work 

in  such  cases,  only  when  a  situation  too  complex  and 
too  difficult  arises.  Their  resistance  to  temptation  may- 
be less  than  normal.  Inability  to  care  for  their  chil- 
dren— who  may  because  of  their  inheritance  be  more 
difficult  than  the  average  to  care  for — may  be  the  first 
indication  of  their  sub-normal  endowment.  They  may 
be  merely  the  first  to  be  out  of  work  in  a  season  of 
unemployment,  the  last  to  find  work  when  employment 
is  resumed.  They  easily  become  petty  criminals,  va- 
grants, prostitutes,  drug  addicts,  inebriates — not  be- 
cause they  are  vicious,  but  because  they  are  unstable 
and  non-resistant.  They  are  easily  victimized.  As 
they  may  be  strong  of  body  and  pretty  of  face  they 
offer  prizes  to  cupidity.  They  may  make  very  good 
soldiers  under  skillful  command.  They  may  do  very 
well  at  common  labor,  where  initiative  and  judgment 
are  at  a  discount.  They  may  even  succeed  in  clerical 
positions  where  routine  work  is  required  and  the  think- 
ing is  done  by  some  one  higher  in  authority. 

The  high-grade  defective  provides  a  very  large  part 
of  the  task  of  social  work,  both  institutional  and  non- 
institutional,  and  this  is  likely  to  continue  to  be  the 
case.  It  will  be  advantageous  to  discover  those  who 
need  to  be  kept  in  a  colony  or  other  institution,  both 
for  their  own  sake  and  as  a  means  of  preventing  them 
from  propagating;  and  to  discover  the  border-line  cases 
who  require  some  guardianship  while  living  and  work- 
ing at  large  in  society.  We  need  to  increase  many  times 
the  available  institutional  facilities.    Probably  five  times 


The  Handicapped  167 

as  many  as  are  now  in  institutions  should  be  cared 
for  in  that  way,  and  this  could  probably  be  brought 
about  without  any  new  compulsory  powers.  Although 
legal  commitment  in  extreme  cases  would  be  wholly 
justified,  our  present  limitation  is  not  in  that  direction, 
but  in  the  lack  of  accommodations.  These  two  develop- 
ments— an  increase  in  institutions,  and  guardianship 
for  the  demonstrably  defective  who  can  still  safely 
be  left  in  their  homes — would  greatly  diminish  depend- 
ence, illegitimacy,  and  minor  crimes — probably  also 
serious  crimes. 

INSANITY 

The  insane  have  benefited  more  perhaps  than  any 
other  sick  or  disabled  class  from  the  advance  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  humanitarian  feeling  in  the  past  century. 
,We  now  fear  them  less  and  treat  them  better.  This 
is  fortunate,  for  there  are  influences  at  work  which 
tend  to  increase  insanity,  and  these  would  have  had 
appalling  results  if  the  cruelty  and  neglect  of  an  earlier 
day  had  not  been  mitigated  by  a  better  understanding 
and  a  more  humane  sentiment. 

Modern  civilization,  as  it  is  trite  to  say,  is  much 
more  complex  than  any  which  has  preceded  it.  We 
have  more  noise,  more  hurry,  more  congestion  of 
population;  more  intricate  machines  to  tend,  more 
things  to  learn  at  school;  more  occasion  to  apprehend 
quickly  all  the  day's  news  of  the  world ;  more  obliga- 
tions to  state,  lodge,  union,  club,  church,  party,  land- 


168  Social  Work 

lord,  fellow  tenant,  fellow  passenger  in  elevator,  subway 
train,  suburban  railway,  Pullman  coach,  or  automobile. 
It  takes  a  very  alert  and  adaptable  mind  to  make  all 
these  adjustments.  The  strain  is  sometimes  too  great. 
When  a  partially  civilized  mind,  in  this  modern  sense, 
is  thrown  into  the  solitude  of  an  isolated  farm  or 
ranch,  the  absence  of  contacts,  the  loneliness,  may 
prove  to  be  an  even  greater  strain.  The  disappoint- 
ments of  business,  the  pressure  of  ill-health  when  this 
creates  imminent  danger  of  professional  or  business 
failure,  the  unstable  home  with  its  frequent  infidelities, 
desertions,  divorces,  are  among  the  numerous  illustra- 
tions of  the  strain  of  modern  life  to  which  the  race 
has  hardly  had  time  to  become  adjusted, — to  much  of 
which  it  may  be  hoped  it  will  never  be  necessary  to 
make  a  permanent  adjustment.  The  world  war  has 
brought  all  this  to  a  tremendous  climax.  Death,  in- 
juries, bereavement,  privation,  dislocation,  burdensome 
taxation,  violent  fluctuations  in  prices,  have  accentuated 
the  difficulties  under  which  individuals  were  already 
carrying  a  heavy  strain. 

Social  work  has  only  a  modest  place  in  the  social 
reconstruction  which  a  recognition  of  this  world  situa- 
tion implies.  When  individuals  seek  to  be  useful  and 
happy  rather  than  rich  and  powerful;  when  industry 
is  judged  by  the  function  which  it  performs  rather  than 
the  profits  which  it  earns ;  when  waste  is  systematically 
prevented  and  cities  are  intelligently  planned;  when  in 
short   society   becomes   rational   and   human    relations 


The  Handicapped  169 

moral,  the  number  of  the  insane,  of  suicides,  of  the 
nervously  disturbed,  will  be  appreciably  less.  In  the 
meantime  the  state  must  provide  hospitals  for  the  men- 
tally sick,  psychiatric  clinics  for  mental  and  nervous 
cases  who  do  not  need  to  be  admitted  to  the  hospital, 
after-care  for  discharged  patients,  vocational  direction, 
psychiatric  home  service,  and  whatever  other  facilities 
may  be  found  necessary. 


CHAPTER   XI 
CRIME   AND   THE   COURTS 


Governments  are  instituted  among  men,  according 
to  the  all  but  sacred  instrument  through  which  our 
independent  national  life  was  inaugurated,  in  order 
to  secure  the  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  its 
Denver  Convention  in  1921  restated  this  principle  in 
language  to  which  no  exception  can  be  taken :  Govern- 
ment is  instituted  for  the  common  good,  for  the  pro- 
tection, safety,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  the  people, 
and  not  for  the  honor  or  profit  of  any  man,  family,  or 
class  of  men.  To  this  they  added  that  the  prime  pur- 
pose of  government  is  to  give  security  to  life,  liberty, 
and  enjoyment  by  the  people  of  the  gains  of  their  own 
industry. 

THE   LAW-ABIDING    SPIRIT 

Governments,  through  their  legislatures,  and  also — 
to  an  extent  which  is  seldom  recognized  in  theory  but 
is  very  obvious  in  practice — through  their  courts,  com- 
missions, and  executive  departments,  make  laws, 
ordinances,  regulations,  decrees,  and  decisions  which 

170 


Crime  and  the  Courts  171 

all  people  within  their  jurisdiction  are  bound  to  obey. 
The  laws  and  decisions  should  be  obeyed,  not  because 
of  any  fear  of  punishment,  but  because  they  are  in 
the  public  interest,  because  they  correspond  to  the  gen- 
eral sense  of  what  is  reasonable  and  right,  and  because 
the  mass  of  the  people  have  a  law-abiding  spirit.  They 
enforce  themselves  by  common  consent  as  to  the  vast 
majority.  However,  penalties  are  prescribed  for  viola- 
tion, in  the  laws  themselves  or  in  the  penal  codes  or 
elsewhere.  Crime  is  the  general  name  for  any  act 
which  is  thus  punishable  as  in  violation  of  a  valid 
existing  law,  and  those  who  are  thus  punishable  are 
called  criminals. 

THE  LAW-BREAKING  SPIRIT 

There  is  the  making  of  a  criminal  in  most  men  and 
women.  ;  The  automobile  driver  casting  a  furtive  eye 
over  his  shoulder  for  the  motor-cycle  policeman;  the 
tourist  returning  from  abroad  with  dutiable  articles 
concealed;  the  income  tax  payer  who  forgets  some 
important  item;  the  dealer  who  is  so  accommodating 
as  to  make  out  a  false  bill  of  sale  in  order  to  defeat 
the  luxury  tax  and  the  purchaser  who  accepts  it;  the 
senator  who  accepts  presents  from  those  whose  hills 
he  has  put  through  the  legislature ;  the  ex-service  man 
who  breaks  up  a  lawful  meeting;  the  citizen  who  con- 
dones lynching,  to  say  nothing  of  the  one  who  takes 
part  in  it;  the  maker  or  purchaser  or  the  thirsty  would- 
be  purchaser  of  alcoholic  beverages  in  violation  of  law 


172  Social  Work 

— are  all  at  or  beyond  the  margin,  and  they  illustrate 
the  nature  of  the  criminal  problem  in  the  making  quite 
as  well  as  the  gang  of  street  boys  with  their  look-out 
ready  to  give  warning  of  the  approach  of  the  policeman. 
The  understanding  student  of  crime  is  not  necessarily 
the  one  who  has  most  studied  the  inside  of  jails  and 
prisons;  but  more  probably  the  one  who  knows  most  oL 
human  nature.  It  is  no  more  important  to  understand 
the  criminal  act  than  to  understand  the  secret  sympathy 
for  it,  the  suppressed  inclination  to  commit  it,  which 
lurks  in  the  mind  of  many  an  unconvicted,  unsuspected, 
and  technically  quite  innocent  citizen.  A  complete 
criminal  psychology  would  startlingly  resemble  ordinary 
psychology,  and  one  who  has  looked  into  the  heart  of 
an  ordinary  human  being  sees  little  to  disturb  his  com- 
posure when  he  looks  into  the  heart  of  the  criminal. 

Given  these  all  but  universal  tendencies  and  frailties, 
h  is  easy  to  understand  why  both  juvenile  and  adult 
delinquency  becomes  a  serious  problem;  why  there  is 
more  of  it  in  certain  places  and  at  certain  times.  Pov- 
erty increases  temptations  and  lessens  resistance — not 
for  all  crimes,  but  for  those  which  are  most  apt  to  result 
in  exposure,  arrest,  and  conviction.  Fear  and  uncer- 
tainty; lack  of  wholesome  recreation  and  amusement; 
overcrowding  and  lack  of  normal  domestic  privacy; 
forced  intimacy  of  association  in  house  or  street,  re- 
gardless of  whether  the  people  against  whom  one  is 
thrown  are  congenial ;  the  rasping  psychological  effect 
of  being  unable  to  escape  from  such  crowding;  the  ner- 


Crime  and  the  Courts  173 

vous  excitement  of  tenement  and  factory  and  street ;  the 
absence  of  real  quiet,  relaxation,  repose,  even  in  sleep, 
all  lead  quite  inevitably  to  the  street  gang  and  to  a  sort 
of  persistent,  constant  warfare  with  the  police  authori- 
ties— a  pitting  of  wits  against  force.  The  motives  are 
not  vicious,  merely  human.  The  impulse  to  do  the 
things  which  society,  in  all  the  circumstances,  cannot 
permit  is  a  creditable  impulse,  and  the  conflict  is  its 
natural  outcome.  If  a  particular  neighborhood  has 
more  than  its  average  handicaps  and  disadvantages — 
because  of  a  bad  reputation,  because  the  more  pros- 
perous and  enterprising  move  away  and  a  dispropor- 
tionate number  of  the  discouraged  and  hopeless  re- 
main— the  intensity  of  the  pressure,  of  the  inducement 
to  violence,  may  be  correspondingly  increased. 

There  may  be  a  "crime  wave"  because  of  particular 
influences  which  for  a  time  affect  large  numbers  of 
those  in  many  places  who  would  ordinarily  be  quite 
law-abiding,  respectable  citizens,  The  World  War 
has  such  obvious  results.  Millions  of  men  become 
accustomed  to  fire-arms,  and  of  these  a  certain  propor- 
tion are  nervous,  excitable,  mentally  unstable,  either 
by  nature  or  because  of  injuries  or  hardships.  Those 
who  have  naturally  vagrant  inclinations  are  up-rooted 
and  find  it  difficult  to  re-establish  themselves.  In  the 
wide-spread  readjustment  of  industry  many  naturally 
become  unsettled.  Chronic  unrest,  pathological  in- 
stability, is  an  inevitable  result  of  the  war,  and  the 
upheavals  which  accompany  and  follow  it.     The  worst 


174  Social  Work 

feature  of  a  crime  wave  is  that  it  induces  a  hysterical 
inability  on  the  part  of  the  public  to  deal  with  it.  As 
soon  as  life  and  property  seem  to  be  a  little  less  secure 
because  of  an  outbreak  of  crimes  of  violence,  there 
springs  up  a  demand  for  indiscriminate  and  drastic 
vengeance,  which  carries  the  administration  of  criminal 
justice  back  into  the  dark  ages  from  which  it  has 
slowly  emerged.  Hanging,  whipping,  and  even  lynch- 
ing become  popular  again.  Reformation,  indeterminate 
sentence,  the  discriminating  attempt  to  adapt  disciplin- 
ary treatment  to  the  nature  of  the  offender,  are  dis- 
credited. The  idea  that  one  "might  as  well  be  hung 
for  a  sheep  as  for  a  lamb"'  again  takes  root  in  the  under- 
world. Rather  than  be  caught  and  punished  for 
larceny,  the  petty  offender  tries  to  cover  his  tracks  by 
murder.  Judges  lose  their  sense  of  perspective,  and 
those  who  are  not  viciously  criminal  get  the  penalties 
which  society  demands  for  those  who  are,  but  who  are 
not  caught. 

Crime  has,  then,  everywhere  this  double  aspect. 
Legally  and  technically  it  is  the  act  which  the  laws 
forbid  and  the  courts  condemn.  Socially  it  is  the 
inevitable  reaction  of  erring  human  nature  to  adverse 
and  crime-provocative  conditions.  The  individual  is 
responsible  for  rising  above  those  conditions,  for  react- 
ing honestly,  and  if  need  be  heroically,  instead  of  crim- 
inally. Society  is  responsible  for  making  such  a  fav- 
orable reaction  possible,  and  even  for  making  it  easier 
and  more  natural  than  the  contrary. 


Crime  and  the  Courts  175 

THE    CRIMINAL    COURTS 

Courts,  which  are  historically  older  than  legislatures 
and  whose  functions  have  never  been  fully  confined 
within  statutory  enactment  or  codes,  have  various  other 
duties,  but  among  them,  from  highest  to  lowest,  there 
are  certain  courts  which  have  criminal  jurisdiction. 
The  lowest  of  these — justices  of  the  peace,  city  magis- 
trates, etc. — decide  the  most  numerous  and,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  maximum  penalties,  the  least  serious 
offenses,  such  as  disorderly  conduct,  vagrancy,  and  pub- 
lic intoxication.  These  justices  may  act  also  as  exam- 
ining magistrates  to  determine  whether  persons  charged 
with  more  serious  crimes  should  be  held  for  a  county 
court  or  some  other  district  court  in  which  such  crimes 
as  assault,  burglary,  and  murder  are  tried.  Above 
these  are  courts  of  appeal,  to  determine  whether  there 
have  been  miscarriages  of  justice  in  the  lower  courts. 
The  names  and  precise  functions  of  these  courts  differ 
in  different  states,  but  the  three  stages  are  always 
found.  The  county  court,  or  what  corresponds  to  it, 
may  act  independently  of  any  lower  committing  magis- 
trate. Offenses  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
are  normally  tried  in  federal  criminal  courts. 

RESPECT   FOR   THE   COURTS 

Unfortunately  this  simple  statement  of  one  side  of 
the  part  played  by  government,  laws,  and  courts  in  our 
social  life,  while  it  is  justifiable  as  a  statement  of  our 
democratic  ideal,  requires  considerable  modification  if 


176  Social  Work 

it  is  to  bear  any  relation  to  current  facts.  Laws  will 
enforce  themselves  by  common  consent  only  when  the 
great  body  of  the  people  feel  that  the  acts  for  which 
men  are  punished  are  in  fact  odious  acts,  contrary  to 
the  general  interest;  only  when  the  laws  are  clearly 
designed  to  protect  the  people  in  their  life,  liberty,  and 
enjoyment  of  the  gains  of  their  industr3^  Some  of  the 
recent  acts  of  our  own  governments  appear  to  many  to 
have  had  no  such  intent.  The  increasingly  acute  in- 
dustrial conflict,  which  profoundly  affects  the  attitude 
of  both  investors  and  industrial  workers  towards  the 
government,  and  the  abnormal  conditions  of  war,  re- 
leasing passions  which  do  not  quickly  subside,  and 
upsetting  or  twisting  many  minds  which  would  have 
been  thought  most  law-abiding,  are  among  the  com- 
plications which  make  the  study  of  crime  at  the  present 
moment  both  more  difficult  and  more  interesting  than 
usual,  and  more  essential. 

Some  law-makers  and  some  public  officials  have  ap- 
parently been  more  concerned  about  the  security  of 
the  existing  political  and  the  existing  industrial  system 
than  about  securing  to  individuals  the  rights  of  life, 
liberty,  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  gains  of  their  own 
industry.  Not  that  the  legislatures  and  officials  ignore 
these  individual  rights.  They  continue  to  protect  them 
in  large  measure,  else  society  would  dissolve.  But  in 
numerous  instances  when  they  come  into  conflict  with 
what  are  assumed  to  be  the  higher  rights  of  the  govern- 
ment itself,  or  the  rights  of  property,  they  are  dis- 


Crime  and  the  Courts  .  \77 

regarded  to  a  degree  which  has  unfortunately  caused 
a  large  part  of  the  population  to  become  suspicious  of 
the  good  intentions  of  the  state  and  federal  governments 
in  reference  to  their  original  and  primary  purpose. 
Many  persons  have  been  thrust  into  prison  whose 
offenses  are  political  or  economic  rather  than  criminal. 
The  security  of  private  individuals  in  speech,  assembly, 
and  even  opinion,  has  been  denied.  In  some  places 
only  those  who  think,  speak,  and  act  in  accordance 
with  the  views  of  public  officials  have  been  secure,  and 
this  is  of  course  to  substitute  absolutism  for  democracy. 
The  Attorney-General  and  the  Postmaster-General  in 
the  Wilson  administration,  in  extraordinary  contrast 
with  other  members  of  the  cabinet  and  with  what  was 
supposed  to  be  the  spirit  of  the  President  himself, 
became  arbitrary  censors,  gaolers,  deporters,  and  pro- 
vokers of  lawlessness.  Some  ex-service  men,  in  local 
posts  of  the  American  Legion,  abused  the  confidence 
and  regard  in  which  they  were  naturally  held,  to  break 
up  meetings  called  for  purposes  with  which  they  were 
not  in  sympathy,  and  assaulted  speakers  of  whose 
views  they  did  not  approve.  Newspapers  were  denied 
second-class  mailing  privileges  even  when  there  was 
nothing  in  them  which  offended  the  laws.  Aliens  were 
held  unlawfully  in  custody,  and  in  some  instances  with 
outrageous  injustice,  pending  proceedings  for  deporta- 
tion. Private  correspondence  was  seized,  headquarters 
of  organizations  under  suspicion  were  raided  without 
search  warrants.     No  doubt  quite  sincerely,  but  never- 


178  So  dial  Work 

theless  quite  unjustifiably,  zealous  prosecutors  became 
agents  of  the  interest  of  a  particular  class — the  pros- 
perous, employing,  investing  class — as  if  this  were 
identified  with  the  public  interest.  Those  who  spoke 
or  acted  for  organized  workers,  especially  if  the.  type 
of  organization  was  of  the  more  militant  or  aggressive 
type,  but  in  some  instances — notably  in  the  steel  strike 
in  Pennsylvania — even  when  they  represented  the 
ordinary  craft  unions,  were  treated  as  if  they  had  no 
rights  which  governments  were  bound  to  respect. 

BAD  EFFECTS  OF  THE  WAR 

The  war  accustomed  us  to  violence.  Fire-arms  be- 
came familiar.  Life  lost  something  of  its  sanctity. 
Sadistic  impulses  had  ample  chance  for  development. 
Hatred  was  cultivated  for  patriotic  purposes  as  a  virtue. 
The  impartial  examination  of  evidence  became  almost 
a  lost  art.  Outrages  the  most  fiendish  were  readily  be- 
lieved to  have  been  committed  by  enemies  on  the  slight- 
est evidence,  while  it  was  regarded  treasonable  to  accept 
even  the  possibility  that  our  own  soldiers  could  have 
been  guilty  of  any  similar  acts.  The  legend  of  a  bol- 
shevist  Russia,  capable  of  all  deviltry  but  of  no  good 
action,  quickly  took  the  place  of  German  militarism 
when  the  latter  was  defeated  on  the  field  and  over- 
thrown  at  home,  for  the  war  psychology,  whipped  up 
by  long  insidious  propaganda  and  regarded  as  essential 
to  victory,  had  not  had  time  to  spend  itself  on  the 
legitimate  object  of  its  fury.     A  culminating  illustra- 


Crime  and  the  Courts  179 

tion  of  this  irrational  war  psychology  may  be  seen 
in  the  voluminous  report  of  the  Joint  Legislative  Com- 
mittee of  the  State  of  New  York  Investigating  Sedi- 
tious Activities,  whose  chairman,  Senator  C.  R.  Lusk, 
and  counsel,  Archibald  E.  Stevenson,  belong  with 
Palmer  and  Burleson  as  the  most  extreme  representa- 
tives of  the  tendencies  which  serve  to  bring  the  laws 
into  contempt  and  courts  under  suspicion.  Appro- 
priately enough,  it  is  the  leaders  in  the  church,  in  the 
teaching  profession,  in  journalism,  and  in  social  work 
who  appear  to  the  inflamed  partisan  imaginations  of 
the  authors  of  the  report  as  dangerous  to  society.  They 
are  quite  right  in  recognizing  an  irrepressible  conflict 
of  ideas  between  such  leaders  and  themselves.  Their 
error  is  only  as  to  which  it  is  that  are  the  enemies  of 
society,* 

These  paragraphs  are  not  irrelevant  to  a  discussion 
of  crime  in  a  text-book  of  social  work,  even  though 
the  particular  controversies  shall  have  become  of  merely 
historical  interest  before  the  book  is  published.  It  is 
desirable  that  courts  should  be  respected,  and  to  that 
end  judges  should  so  interpret  and  apply  the  laws  as 
to  be  worthy  of  respect.  Crime  should  be  odious,  and 
to  that  end  the  laws  should  pronounce  as  criminal  only 


*  Since  the  above  was  written,  a  fittinc?  climax  to  Senator 
Lusk's  post-war  activities  appears  in  his  admission  before  a 
friendly  investigating  committee  of  which  he  is  a  member 
that  he  and  his  wife  and  daughter  had  received  "presents"  from 
police  detectives  whose  objectionable  bills  he  had  rescued  from 
defeat. 


180  Social  IVork 

those  acts  which  are  in  fact  odious.  When  innocent 
and  even  heroic  persons  are  crucified,  burnt  at  the  stake, 
imprisoned,  scourged,  deported,  lynched,  tarred  and 
feathered,  it  confuses  the  public  opinion,  blurs  the  dis- 
tinctions between  right  and  wrong,  tempts  the  people 
to  think  that  government  is  only  a  weapon  in  the  hands 
of  privilege,  and  creates  the  myth  that  force  thus  en- 
trenched in  courts,  constabulary,  and  armies  can  be 
met  only  by  violence.  Revolutionists  are  openly  de- 
sirous of  creating  just  this  myth  and  rejoice  at  every 
instance  which  seems  to  justify  it — and  they  have  had 
much  cause  for  rejoicing. 

SPECIAL   POSITION   OF    COURTS   IN    AMERICA 

In  America  the  courts  have  a  higher  and  more  diffi- 
cult role  than  in  other  countries,  for  it  is  our  custom 
that  courts  shall  decide  whether  particular  legislative 
acts  are  or  are  not  constitutional.  The  Bill  of  Rights 
is  in  the  Constitution.  There  are  also  in  it  certain 
phrases — chief  among  them  one  which  declares  that 
property  shall  not  be  taken  without  due  process  of 
law — which  have  had  very  extraordinary  judicial  elab- 
oration. The.xourts  are  on  trial  before  the  bar  of  a 
slowly  forming  public  opinion  as  to  whether  they  will 
become  the  bulwark  of  property  or  the  bulwark  of 
human  rights.  They  will  profess  to  be  both,  but  in 
the  conflicts  which  are  impending  they  will  have  to 
become  mainly  one  or  the  other.  They  cannot  be  both. 
Property  is  making  claims  which  cannot  be  justified 


Crime  and  the  Courts  181 

by  any  function  which  it  performs,  any  service  which 
it  renders.  If  nevertheless  in  all  its  forms  it  is  held 
sacred,  if  the  rights  of  those  who  receive  large  incomes 
without  corresponding  service  are  held  inviolate,  and 
legislatures  are  unable  to  create  new  legal  forms  which 
correspond  to  the  living  realities  of  our  own  time,  then 
the  public  good-will  on  which  courts  depend  will  be 
undermined  and  there  will  be  a  need  for  new  organic 
laws,  in  which  governments  will  be  recalled  to  their 
primary  functions  and  courts  will  be  created  which 
contribute  to  the  legitimate  ends  of  government.  \ 

In  contrast  with  the  anti-social  and  partisan  tenden- 
cies which  some  courts  have  shown,  there  have  been 
encouraging  developments.  The  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  and  some  of  the  state  supreme  courts  have 
shown  an  inclination  to  apply  the  rule  of  reason,  and 
have  admitted  evidence  for  their  enlightenment  and 
guidance  which  has  been  gathered  from  the  literature 
and  experience  of  the  social  agencies, 

SPECIALIZATION  OF  COURTS 

The  creation  of  specialized  courts — such  as  juvenile 
court,  family  court,  bastardy  or  filiation  court,  night 
court,  small  claims  court,  court  of  industrial  relations, 
and  courts  to  determine  cases  of  alleged  violation  of 
municipal  ordinances — represents  an  interesting  differ- 
entiation of  judicial  functionsT/  Some  of  these  are 
wholly  experimental,  and  may  be  modified  or  abandoned 
after  trial.     Duties  at  first  assumed  by  juvenile  courts 


182  Social  Work 

may  be  transferred  to  family  courts  or  to  public  school 
authorities.  The  necessity  for  a  night  court  may  dis- 
appear through  the  disappearance  of  the  particular 
abuses  which  it  was  intended  to  correct.  Industrial 
relations  may  prove  to  be  more  suitable  for  the  juris- 
diction of  a  commission  than  a  court.  The  tendency, 
however,  to  create  a  special  court  whenever  there  is 
work  enough  of  the  particular  kind  in  the  existing 
courts  of  a  given  jurisdiction  to  justify  it  is  to  be  en- 
couraged. Both  judge  and  court  officers,  by  specializing 
on  a  particular  kind  of  case,  naturally  become  more  skill- 
ful in  adjusting  or  deciding  them.  Procedure  adapted 
to  the  rational  treatment  and  the  prevention  of  the 
offence  is  developed.  The  public  more  easily  absorbs 
the  lesson  to  be  learned  from  experience,  since  this 
experience  is  isolated  from  the  general  mass  of  court 
work  and  concentrated  where  those  interested  in  the 
particular  problem  may  come  and  study  it. 

Thus  juvenile  courts  have  caused  the  problems  of 
juvenile  delinquency  to  be  better  understood.  They 
have  had  a  wholesome  iniluence  on  parents  and  on  the 
juvenile  reformatories.  They  have  permitted  a  much 
wider  use  of  probation  and  "big  brothers."  They 
have  facilitated  the  scientific  study  of  the  mental 
peculiarities  of  juvenile  delinquents,  j,  They  have  re- 
vealed more  clearly  the  intimate  relation  between  mental 
defect  and  delinquency,  and  the  importance  of  voca- 
tional schools  and  the  improvement  of  secondary 
schools   generally   in   the   prevention  of   truancy   and 


Crime  and  the  Courts  183 

juvenile  offenses.  This  progress  has  been  made  here- 
tofore mainly  in  the  cities.  The  extension  of  juvenile 
court  methods,  including  probation,  to  the  smaller 
towns  and  the  open  country  is  clearly  essential.  In 
order  to  protect  the  victims  it  might  be  advisable  to 
extend  the  jurisdiction  of  juvenile  courts  to  sex  offenses 
against  children  committed  by  adults. 

THE    FEMALE    OFFENDER 

Criminal  statistics  indicate  that  in  general  there  are 
comparatively  few  female  criminals  except  for  one  class 
of  offenses.  So  true  is  this  that  the  phrase  "female 
offender"  when  unqualified  is  usually  taken  to  mean  a 
prostitute.  The  "female  offender"  in  this  sense  is 
presented  by  a  school  of  "scientific"  criminolog^v  as 
corresponding  to  the  typical  male  "criminal,"  and  is 
believed  to  be  similarly  characterized  by  definite  physi- 
cal stigmata  and  mental  traits.  This  predominance  of 
women  in  sex  offenses  is  of  course  technical — the  re- 
sult of  the  artificial  distinction  under  which  legal  pros- 
titution consists  in  offering  the  body  to  indiscriminate 
sexual  intercourse  for  hire,  and  does  not  include  the 
offer  of  money  in  payment  for  such  intercourse,  thus 
outlawing  only  the  woman's  half  of  a  transaction  in 
which  from  the  social  or  the  moral  standpoint  there  is 
no  perceptible  difference.  The  legal  distinction  is  sim- 
ilar to  that  which  leads  to  a  similar  injustice  in  con- 
nection with  bribes.  The  bribe-taker  is  far  more  apt 
to  be  punished  than  the  bribe-giver.     The  latter  is  in 


184  Social  Work 

fact  often  represented  as  the  rather  innocent  victim 
of  coercion,  just  as  the  frequenter  of  a  house  of  prosti- 
tution is  held  to  be  the  victim  of  temptation.  A  very 
good  case  can  be  made  for  precisely  the  opposite  view 
in  both  instances.  The  beginning  of  corruption  is  in 
the  demand,  the  desire  of  the  one  who  can  pay,  rather 
than  in  the  supply,  the  offer  of  the  body  or  of  official 
favors  for  hire. 

It  does  not  follow  that  much  is  to  be  expected  from 
the  mere  outlawing  of  the  male  patronage  of  disorderly 
houses.  The  results  of  treating  the  women  in  them  as 
criminals  has  not  been  reassuring.  The  persistent  sup- 
pression of  commercialized  vice,  prosecution  of  pro- 
prietors, procurers,  owners  of  premises  used  for  prosti- 
tution, of  those  who  live  from  the  proceeds  of  prosti- 
tution, male  and  female,  as  vagrants,  have  been  recom- 
mended by  all  careful  students  of  the  subject.  The  sex 
discrimination  should  cease,  and  energy  should  be  con- 
centrated on  the  rescue  and  training  of  individuals, 
the  treatment  of  disease,  the  protection  of  the  mentally 
defective,  a  persistent  attack  on  all  the  degrading  con- 
ditions which  tend  to  make  female  offenders  of  girls 
and  women  who  have  less  than  normal  resistance  or 
more  than  the  ordinary  pressure  to  resist. 


CHAPTER   XII 
TREATMENT  OF  CRIMINALS 


In  the  broad  field  of  crime  three  general  classes  of 
offenses  are  recognized :  felonies,  misdemeanors,  and 
violations  of  local  ordinances.  The  word  crime  may 
be  restricted  to  the  first  two  of  these  categories,  or, 
more  broadly  speaking,  may  include  also  the  third.  The 
felon  was  supposed  to  be  malignant,  vicious,  infamous. 
His  offense  under  early  English  law  was  one  for  which 
lands  or  goods  might  be  forfeited,  with  of  course  addi- 
tional and  more  severe  penalties  according  to  the  par- 
ticular act  of  which  he  was  found  guilty. <^  In  New 
York  at  present  any  crime  is  a  felony  for  which  the 
offender  may  be  put  to  death  or  imprisoned  in  a  state 
prison,  and  this  rneans  a  sentence  of  imprisonment  for 
one  year  or  more.^  Lesser  crimes,  usually  punishable  by 
incarceration  in  a  county  penitentiary  or  work-house  or 
by  fine,  are  misdemeanors.  Violations  of  municipal 
ordinances  or  disorderly  conduct,  although  punishable, 
are  not  regarded  as  criminal  in  the  sense  of  exhibiting 
moral  turpitude. 

The  elaborate  classification  of  criminal  acts,  and  the 
careful  gradation  of  penalties,  each  to  fit  some  particular 

185 


186^  Social  Work 

act  or  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  committed, 
represent  progress  away  from  cruel  and  arbitrary  pun- 
ishments of  an  earHer  day,  but  they  have  ceased  to 
correspond  to  the  social  treatment  of  crime  as  modern 
penology  conceives  it.  The  offender  rather  than  the 
specific  act  is  now  regarded  as  the  center  of  interest. 
Social  defense  rather  than  vengeance  furnishes.  Jhe 
sanction  for  the  treatment  which  the  offender  is  to  re-, 
ceive.  Prevention  and  reformatiOTr"aTe-p«me  consid-" 
erations.  If  these  are  impracticable  then  segregation 
of  the  incorrigible  offender,  not  on  a  brief  sentence 
for  each  offense,  but  permanently,  is  the  logical  alter- 
native. If  the  offender  cannot  be  prevented  from  corn- 
mitting  criminal  acts  by  due  warning,  education,  and 
discipline,  it  is  probably  because  he  is  morally  perverted 
or  mentally  defective,  and  in  either  case  hospital  care, 
in  his  own  interest  and  in  that  of  society,  rather  than 
repeated  arrests  and  convictions  and  punishments,  is 
what  he  requires. 

AN    IDEAL    PLAN    FOR    THE    TREATMENT    OF    CONVICTED 

OFFENDERS 

The  end  towards  which  the  reforms  and  experiments 
of  the  last  few  decades  seem  to  point  is  the  transforma- 
tion of  all  our  jails,  prisons,  penitentiaries,  and  re- 
formatories into  a  closely  knit  series  of  three  institu- 
tions— all  under  state  rather  than  local  supervision : 

(1)     A   place  of   detention   for   all   convicted 
offenders,  for  physical,  mental,  and  social  exam- 


Treatment  of  Criminals  187 

inatlon.  Here  a  competent  commission  with  ade- 
quate facilities  would  decide  what  treatment  the 
offender  requires,  due  consideration  being  given 
to  the  public  interest  as  well  as  to  his  own.  From 
this  temporary  place  of  detention  all  would  be 
passed  on  to  probationary  oversight  at  home  or 
elsewhere  or  to  one  of  the  two  permanent  insti- 
tutions. 

(2)  A  school,  or  reformatory,  which  in  its 
several  departments  would  be  equipped  appropri- 
ately for  every  teachable,  reformable  offender, 

(3)  A  colony,  or  hospital,  for  those  who  are 
unimprovable,  or  whose  offenses  are  so  revolting 
and  unnatural  that  society  cannot — at  least  for 
a  time — tolerate  their  presence  at  large,  however 
completely  they  may  seem  to  have  reformed. 

REACTIONARY  TENDENCIES  OF  THE  MOMENT 

No  mention  is  made  of  the  death  penalty  or  of  de- 
grading punishments.  At  the  time  when  these  words 
are  written  the  tendency  is  towards  a  revival  of  capital 
punishment,  the  infliction  of  severe  deterrent  penalties, 
and  frequent  resort  to  swift  and  summary  "justice" 
without  trial  for  certain  offenses.  But  these  tendencies 
are  due  to  temporary  causes  and  can  be  regarded  only 
as  a  lamentable  retreat  over  ground  which  has  been 
slowly  and  painfully  won  in  the  past,  and  which  will 
have  to  be  regained,  it  may  be  at  grievous  cost. 


188  Social  Work 

The  objection  to  hanging,  electrocuting,  burning, 
and  to  whipping  posts,  stocks,  and  other  degrading 
or  humiHating  forms  of  punishment,  is  that  they  do 
not  accompHsh  their  purpose  as  deterrents  and  that 
they  do  have  a  debasing  effect  on  those  who  inflict  and 
on  those  who  witness  or  tolerate  them.  Men  cannot 
treat  even  criminals  brutally  without  becoming  for  the 
time  being  brutes  themselves.  They  cannot  treat  those 
who  are  merely  suspected  of  crime,  or  perhaps  wrong- 
fully charged  with  it,  in  a  vengeful  and  cruel  fashion 
without  whetting  the  latent  primitive  lust  for  cruelty 
and  laying  up  a  store  of  blind  vengeance  for  future 
victims.  - 

EARLY  EDUCATION 

Crimes  have  their  origin  in  undisciplined  human 
passions — lust,  cupidity,  anger;  or  in  maladjustments 
which  involve  too  great  a  strain  on  a  low  intelligence, 
an  undeveloped  personality.  To  say  that  many  petty 
thieves  do  not  know  the  difference  between  mine  and 
thine  might  be  misleading.  They  may  have  the  knowl- 
edge which  the  law  assumes  to  be  essential  for  criminal 
responsibility  and  still  not  have  had  such  a  clear  and 
convincing  explanation  of  the  reasons  for  the  distinc- 
tion as  even  children  can  understand.  The  fact  of  the 
distinction  is  most  easily  inculcated  in  earliest  infancy, 
by  a  parental  authority,  especially  if  there  is  fraternal 
co-operation.  But  the  personal  and  social  advantages 
of  respecting  the  property  of  others  may  be  set  forth 


Treatment  of  Criminals  189 

more  and  more  clearly  as  the  children  grow  older, 
until  the  time  comes  when  there  is  a  harmonious  ad- 
justment between  the  instinct  of  possession  on  the 
part  of  the  one  and  the  instinctive  recognition  of  the 
sacredness  even  of  unprotected  property  on  the  part 
of  the  others.  These  developing  and  complementary 
instincts  become  the  natural  basis  of  the  social  treat- 
ment of  crimes  in  respect  to  property,  such  as  larceny, 
burglary,  forgery,  obtaining  goods  under  false  pre- 
tenses, infringement  of  copyright  or  patents,  cheating 
in  trade,  conversion  of  trust  funds  to  personal  use, 
fraudulent  misrepresentations  of  the  value  of  securi- 
ties, unlawful  monopoly,  restraint  of  competition,  coer- 
cion in  trade,  and  oppression  through  economic  privi- 
lege. 

THE    NEED    FOR    JUST   LAWS INTELLIGENTLY 

ADMINISTERED 

The  laws  and  regulations  in  regard  to  property  have 
been  slowly  developed  through  the  generations  for  a 
good  social  purpose.  They  are  intended  to  promote 
security  in  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  the  fruits 
of  industry.  They  are  intended  to  secure  life  and  lib- 
erty and  to  promote  the  happiness  of  individuals 
in  society.  What  is  essential  is  that  the  generality  of 
men  should  find  in  their  own  experience  that  they  are 
working  to  these  ends.  It  is  not  enough  that  they 
be  assured  of  this  by  their  teachers.  In  the  long  run 
they  will  not  believe  it  unless  it  is  true.     The  laws 


190  Social  Work 

must  be  founded  on  well  established  principles;  they 
must  correspond  to  our  inherited  and  instinctive  needs. 
They  must  be  flexible  and  adaptable  to  new  needs,  or 
to  those  newly  recognized.- — 'They  must  be  ethical, 
equitable,  just.  They  must  be  impartially  enforced 
and  intelligently  administered.  Assuming  these  funda- 
mentals, we  may  expect  that  those  who  knowingly 
and  wilfully  violate  the  laws  will  at  once  come  under 
public  disapproval.  They  may  have  excuse.  If  so, 
we  will  take  it  into  account.  They  may  have  been 
uninstructed.  If  so,  we  will  instruct  them.  They  may 
have  some  physical  or  mental  twist  which  requires 
expert  skill  to  correct.  If  so,  we  will  put  skillful  experts 
at  the  task.  They  may  have  unique  temptatiofis.  If 
so,  we  will  either  remove  the  temptation  or  seek  to 
strengthen  the  will  to  resist.  They  may  have  unreas- 
onable burdens.  If  so,  we  will  if  possible  lighten 
them.  What  we  cannot  tolerate  is  that  they  shall  con- 
tinue to  disobey  the  laws. 

TREATMENT    OF    OFFENDERS    BY    WARNING 

Society  has  discarded  many  forms  of  discipline 
and  punishment  which  were  formerly  used.  The  pres- 
ent reliance  is,  first,  upon  warning,  with  or  without 
a  technical  arrest.  Policemen  and  other  peace  officers 
in  practice  deal  with  a  very  large  number  of  small 
offenders  in  this  way.  Fast  driving,  ball  playing  in 
city  streets,  cruelty  to  horses,  obstructing  fire  escapes, 
and  many  similar  misdemeanors  or  irregularities,  are 


Treatment  of  Criminals  191 

likely  to  lead  to  a  sharp  reprimand  rather  than  to  an  ar- 
rest, although  repeated  offenses,  or  even  a  first  offense 
under  certain  circumstances,  as  when  police  officers  are 
under  some  constraint  to  make  a  record  for  arrests,  may 
bring  the  unlucky  offender  directly  into  court  for  a  fine 
or  worse.  Judicial  admonition  and  rebuke  may  follow 
or  take  the  place  of  the  policeman's  warning.  Such 
counsel  and  advice  are  a  very  important  part  of  the 
duties  of  the  Juvenile  Court  judge.  Parents  may  be 
W'arned  in  this  way  concerning  their  responsibility 
for  the  conduct  of  their  children  or  their  obligations 
to  their  children,  Man  and  wife  may  have  a  very 
beneficial  lecture  from  the  judge  in  a  court  of  domestic 
relations.  Foreign-born  residents  whose  delinquencies 
may  be  due  to  their  ignorance  or  to  a  racial  prejudice 
of  their  neighbors,  may  thus  get  a  friendly  lesson 
under  circumstances  which  will  impress  it  upon  their 
memory.  They  will  be  fortunate  if  they  do  not  instead 
have  the  disservice  of  a  complete  lack  of  understanding, 
resulting  in  some  flagrant  injustice,  or  at  least  in  a 
failure  on  the  part  of  the  court  to  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  for  promoting  the  process  of  American- 
ization. 

PROBATION 

If  it  appears  that  a  crime  has  been  committed  by 
the  accused  and  that  imprisonment  would  be  warranted 
by  law,  recourse  may  still  be  had  to  what  is  called 
probation.    This,  as  at  present  understood,  is  something 


192  Social  Work 

more  than  a  mere  understanding  between  the  judge 
and  the  probationer.  It  is  a  system  of  discipHne  and 
correction  implying  probationary  oversight,  exercised 
by  a  probation  officer.  "^This  may  be  a  man  or  a 
woman,  paid  or  unpaid,  with  or  without  ordinary 
pohce  powers.  The  duty  of  the  probation  officer  is 
to  see  that  the  conditions  under  which  sentence  is  sus- 
pended are  carried  out;  that  the  probationer  shall 
forsake  his  evil  ways  and  conduct  himself  in  a  law- 
abiding  fashion,  especially  as  to  the  offense  of  which  he 
has  been  found  guilty,  but  also  generally,  in  other  re- 
spects ;  that  any  necessary  aid  is  given  in  finding  work 
or  in  cutting  away  from  bad  associations  or  in  overcom- 
ing bad  habits.  The  probation  officer  is  expected  to  see 
his  charge  regularly,  and  also,  if  necessary,  irregularly; 
to  visit  his  home,  and  perhaps  his  place  of  employment, 
being  careful  however  not  to  cause  him  in  this  way 
unnecessary  embarassment ;  and  to  report  to  the  court 
at  stipulated  times  until  the  end  of  the  probationary 
period  whether  his  conduct  is  satisfactory.  ^The  pro- 
bationer may  be  re-arrested  and  even  imprisoned  on 
the  original  charge  if  he  violates  wilfully  the  conditions 
of  his  probation,  or  the  new  misconduct  may  be  the 
occasion  for  new  charges,  and  trial,  with  the  probability 
of  losing  the  probationary  privilege. 

The  probation  system  is  now  used  extensively  both 
for  children  and  for  adults.  It  is  of  course  less  expen- 
sive than  imprisonment,  and  in  a  large  proportion  of  the 
cases  of  first  offenders  it  is  effective  in  its  main  purpose 


Treatment  of  Criminals  193 

of  preventing  a  repetition  of  the  offense.  It  avoids 
the  positive  evils  of  prison  hfe,  its  bad  associations, 
its  hardening  of  a  young  offender  into  a  professional 
criminal,  its  embittering  of  the  soul  of  the  young  pris- 
oner who  may  have  been  far  less  of  a  criminal  in  intent, 
in  spite  of  his  illegal  act,  than  many  who  are  not  caught 
and  prosecuted  and  convicted. 

FINES 

Warnings  and  probation  are  substitutes  for  pun- 
ishment, but  the  fine,  which  we  have  next  to  consider, 
is  a  penalty,  one  of  the  means  by  which  the  lesser  crimes 
are  punished.  The  imposition  of  a  money  payment  as 
a  penalty  for  the  violation  of  law  goes  far  back  into 
ancient  customs.  It  still  carries  with  it  something  of 
the  idea  of  expiating  a  fault,  satisfying  a  claim  which 
originally  might  have  been  regarded  as  a  private, 
personal  grievance  rather  than  a  claim  of  society.  Res- 
titution of  what  had  been  wrongfully  seized,  perhaps 
two-fold,  and  several  other  historic  penalties  from  one 
or  another  source  of  our  existing  public  law,  have  left 
their  traces  on  the  fine  system.  Fines  have  survived 
and  have  replaced  most  other  penalties  except  imprison- 
ment mainly  because  they  afford  a  simpler,  easier,  more 
universally  applicable  form  of  punishment  than  whip- 
ping, ducking,  branding,  or  any  of  the  other  penalties 
which  have  been  tried.  If  incomes  were  equal,  so  that 
the  marginal  value  of  a  given  sum  of  money  would  be 
the  same  subjectively  for  all,  the  fine  would  be  more 


194  Social  Work 

equitable  than  it  is  under  our  actual  conditions.  The 
famous  fine  of  $29,000,000  which  Judge  Landis  im- 
posed on  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and  did  not 
collect  was  not  in  fact  a  more  severe  punishment  than 
many  a  five  dollar  fine  imposed  on  a  poor  man  or  woman 
who  has  to  borrow  it  before  paying  it,  or  go  to  prison 
for  lack  of  it.  To  some  extent  courts  take  into  account 
the  circumstances  of  the  defendant  in  fixing  the  amount 
of  a  line,  within  the  Hmits  of  their  discretion.  These 
limits  are  narrow,  however,  and  the  alternative  of 
imprisonment  has  often  to  be  accepted  by  the  poor, 
when  persons  in  better  circumstances  will  be  able  for 
the  same  offense  to  pay  a  fine  which  involves  little 
or  no  hardship,  except  the  humiliation  and  perhaps 
trifling  inconvenience  of  appearing  in  court.  The 
probationary  fine,  i.  e.,  release  under  probationary 
oversight  until  the  fine  is  paid,  giving  a  chance  for 
the  probationer  to  earn  the  amount,  is  a  mitigation  of 
the  hardship  for  those  who  have  no  money  which  they 
can  spare  and  who  cannot  borrow  it.  At  best  the  pen- 
alty of  a  fine  bears  very  unevenly  on  different  offenders 
according  to  their  means.  Courts  sometimes  aggra- 
vate rather  than  lessen  the  hardship.  For  example, 
after  the  exposure  of  the  Lockwood  Committee  in  New 
York  in  regard  to  the  amazing  frauds,  coercion,  black- 
mail, and  corruption  in  the  building  industries,  at  a 
time  just  after  the  world  war,  when  because  of  the 
scarcity  of  dwellings  such  practices  were  especially 
atrocious  and  detestable,  the  labor  leaders  who  were 


Treatment  of  Criminals  195 

convicted  were  as  a  rule  sentenced  to  prison,  with  uni- 
versal approval,  while  the  courts  punished  only  with 
fines  the  equally  guilty  contractors  who  to  their  own 
pecuniary  advantage  had  engaged  in  these  corrupt 
and  illegal  practices.  Technically  the  crimes  of  which 
they  were  guilty  would  be  described  in  somewhat 
different  words,  but  from  the  moral  point  of  view, 
to  which,  as  we  have  said,  the  administration  of  the 
laws  must  conform  if  they  are  to  be  respected  and 
willingly  obeyed,  the  contractor  who  buys  the  services 
of  a  corrupt  labor  leader  with  profit  to  himself  is 
certainly  just  as  guilty  as  the  one  who  is  bought,  and 
a  fine  which  takes  only  a  small  portion  of  his  illgotten 
gains  is  a  very  inadequate  penalty,  whether  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  vindication  of  outraged  law  or 
from  that  of  preventing  similar  injury  to  society  in 
the  future. 

DENIAL    OF    PRIVILEGES    AS    PENALTIES 

Fines  are  sometimes  supplemented  by  the  withdrawal 
of  some  privilege,  as  for  example  a  driver's  auto- 
mobile license,  in  case  of  repeated  convictions  for 
reckless  driving,  or  of  the  privilege  of  renting  apart- 
ments in  a  tenement  house  which  has  been  built  in 
violation  of  law  or  which  is  not  kept  in  a  sanitary 
condition.  In  this  direction  there  is  an  opportunity 
for  a  beneficial  development  of  penalties  which  fit  the 
offenses  and  which  are  likely  to  be  exceptionally  effec- 
tive as  correctives  and  preventives. 


196  Social  Work 

PAYMENT    OF    PRISONERS 

After  the  probationary  fine,  a  next  logical  measure 
for  those  imprisoned  is  their  employment  in  such  a 
way  that  payment  can  be  made  to  their  families  or  to 
the  prisoner  himself  on  discharge.  Several  attempts 
have  been  made  in  this  direction,  especially  in  cases 
in  which  a  man  is  imprisoned  for  non-support  or  ill 
treatment  of  his  wife  and  children.  Obviously  it  is  a 
sorry  remedy  for  non-support — as  it  used  to  be  for 
debt — to  put  the  delinquent  in  such  a  position  that  he 
cannot  support  his  family  if  he  will.  Sometimes 
this  is  preferable  to  the  presence  in  the  family  of  a  nom- 
inal head  who  makes  no  effort  to  play  the  part,  but 
compulsory  work  of  a  disciplinary  or  educational 
kind  which  will  yield  some  surplus  income  for  the 
family  is  clearly  better  than  imprisonment  which  is 
punishment  and  nothing  more. 

PRISONS  :  A   CONFESSION  OF  FAILURE 

To  most  persons  the  word  crime  suggests  at  once 
the  word  prison.  Criminals  are  thought  of  as  normally 
incarcerated,  or  as  on  their  way  to  or  from  prison. 
If  they  are  not  in  prison  they  are  probably  not  receiving 
their  deserts.  If  they  have  been  in  prison  they  will 
probably  eventually  go  back.  There  is  something 
very  naive  in  this  association  of  criminals  with  a 
prison.  It  can  hardly  have  arisen  because  of  any  con- 
spicuous success  of  the  prison  as  a  means  of  dealing 


Treatment  of  Criminals  197 

with  crime.  It  has  not  reformed  many  of  those  whom 
it  has  sheltered.  It  has  certainly  made  criminals  of 
many  of  them  in  whom  the  process  had  hardly  begun. 
It  has  put  a  brand  indelible  as  that  of  Cain  upon  the 
mmds  of  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  have  been 
its  inmates?)  The  prison  is  in  reality  the  ultimate  Con- 


nies, v 
ofso 


fession  of^social  failure.  It  is  an  expression  of  fear. 
Society  knows  of  no  other  protection  from  these  bur- 
glars, thieves,  forgers,  wife  beaters,  gunmen,  and 
therefore  we  lock  them  up,  put  armed  guards  over 
them  with  orders  to  shoot  if  they  attempt  to  escape. 
We  are  uncomfortable  when  they  come  out  at  the  end 
of  a  sentence  and  breathe  more  freely  wdien  they  go 
back  again.  We  establish  shops  and  classes  for  them, 
but  without  real  expectation  that  it  will  make  much 
difference.  We  parole  some  of  them  and  shorten  the 
term  for  good  behavior  in  prison,  and  now  and  then 
a  sympathetic  voice  is  lifted  in  their  behalf — speaking 
as  if  some  kind  of  kinship  with  ourselves  were  recog- 
nized, some  of  the  ordinary  qualities  of  humanity,  in 
the  boys  and  men  who  are  now  in  the  prison  or  have 
recently  been  there.  But  most  red-blooded  men  regard 
this  as  a  sort  of  sentimental  lunacy  or  a  conventional 
fiction  allowable  to  chaplains  and  women  but  rather 
out  of  place  in  a  warden  or  law-abiding  male  citizen. 

THE    COUNTY    JAIL 

At  the  bottom  of  our  prison  system  is  the  county 
jail  or  town  lock-up,  which  serves  the  double  purpose 


198  Social  Work 

of  a  place  of  detention  for  those  charged  with  crime 
who  cannot  furnish  or  are  not  allowed  to  give  a  bail 
bond  for  their  appearance  for  trial,  and  a  place  of 
imprisonment  for  those  whose  terms  are  too  short  to 
make  it  worth  while  to  take  them  to  a  penitentiary 
or  state  prison  or  who  for  any  reason  are  sentenced 
to  serve  their  term  in  the  jail.  Of  all  our  prisons  the 
jail,  with  few  exceptions,  is  the  worst  and  most  con- 
spicious  failure.  No  institution  can  properly  serve 
the  two  purposes  above  mentioned.  If  we  had  a  com- 
plete registration  of  the  whole  population,  constantly 
corrected  with  every  change  of  address,  it  would  seldom 
be  necessary  to  lock  up  any  unconvicted  persons 
except  those  charged  with  the  gravest  crimes.  During 
the  war  we  had  such  a  registration  of  all  men  of  mili- 
tary age.  Through  tax  departments,  school  authorities, 
health  services,  automobile  licenses,  etc.,  we  already 
have  numerous  partial  registrations,  most  of  which 
might  be  consolidated  into  a  single  complete  registry, 
through  which  health  or  police  or  tax  department 
might  easily  and  quickly  locate  any  person  desired. 
It  is  absurd  to  assume  that  any  one  would  become  a 
fugitive  from  justice  rather  than  take  the  chances  of 
trial  and  punishment,  if  throughout  the  country  there 
were  everywhere  facilities  for  identifying  strangers  and 
if  it  were  the  custom  for  all  who  change  their  residence 
to  report  that  fact  at  once  to  the  local  bureau  of  reg- 
istration. Even  without  this  change,  desirable  on  many 
other   grounds,   imprisonment   in   a   jail   before   trial 


Treatment  of  Criminals  199 

could  easily  be  avoided  in  many  cases.  The  night  court 
was  established  largely  for  the  very  laudable  purpose 
of  avoiding  detention  over  night  and  preventing  the 
extortions  of  those  who  hang  about  the  city  police 
stations  to  furnish  bail  for  persons  awaiting  trial. 
A  prompt  hearing  on  all  minor  charges  is  an  obvious 
right  of  the  accused. 

The  graver  faults  of  the  jail,  however,  are  associated 
with  their  imprisonment  of  petty  offenders.  These 
inmates,  sentenced  repeatedly  for  vagrancy,  disorderly 
conduct,  intoxication,  prostitution,  and  other  ofifenses, 
become  often  regular  habitues  of  the  jail.  They  corrupt 
one  another  and  any  youth  who  may  get  into  jail, 
whether  awaiting  trial  or  serving  a  short  sentence. 
The  whole  system  is  wrong  from  the  ground  up. 
The  imprisonment  of  human  beings  as  a  punishment 
for  crime  is  a  very  serious  proceeding.  It  should  not 
devolve  upon  the  county,  but,  as  far  as  it  is  necessary 
at  all,  upon  the  state.  County  commissioners  have  a 
variety  of  duties  to  perform  in  connection  with  roads, 
bridges,  elections,  poor  relief,  schools  and  courts  and 
other  matters,  and  they  are  seldom  expert  in  any  of 
these  directions.  The  county  is  a  very  important  unit 
of  government,  but  few  citizens  realize  it,  and  there 
are  few  safeguards  for  the  adequate  performance 
of  the  functions  devolving  upon  the  small  board  of 
commissioners  who  constitute  its  legislative  and  to 
some  extent  its  executive  organ.  We  read  in  the  daily 
press  of  the  proceedings  of  state  legislatures  and  of 


200  Social  Work 

city  councils.  The  mayor  and  other  city  officials  are 
much  in  the  public  eye.  For  some  reason  county 
commissioners  and  those  who  are  responsible  to  them 
receive  relatively  scant  attention.  The  jail  may  be  dirty, 
infested  with  vermin,  a  lire  trap,  a  place  of  forced 
indiscriminate  association,  a  breeder  of  crime,  and 
these  facts  remain  unknown  to  the  public.  A  casual 
visit  to  the  jail  may  not  disclose  them.  The  sheriff 
and  his  family  may  live  under  the  same  roof  and  not 
realize  all  that  goes  on  under  that  roof.  The  jail  is 
not  large  enough  to  permit  classification,  or  important 
enough  to  be  kept  under  rigid  supervision.  It  is  a  back 
eddy  of  social  neglect :  a  place  where  human  beings 
are  punished,  innocent  with  guilty,  unfortunate  with 
vicious,  and  yet,  because  it  has  ordinarily  only  a  few 
inmates,  because  it  is  local,  informal,  a  personal  enter- 
prise oftentimes  of  the  jailer,  because  the  inmates  are 
assumed  to  be  there  only  for  a  short  time,  and  mainly 
because  nobody  cares,  it  is  a  sad  blot — not  by  any  means 
the  only  one — on  our  treatment  of  criminals.  These 
facts  have  often  been  pointed  out.  They  are  well 
known  to  penologists  and  reformers.  Some  jails  have 
been  so  constructed  and  are  so  managed  that  they  are 
models  of  sanitation  and  architecturally  above  reproach; 
but  the  fundamental  errors  remain  of  confining  in  one 
l)Iace  those  who  are  awaiting  trial  and  are  assumed 
to  be  innocent  with  convicted  offenders,  however  brief 
their  sentence,  and  of  entrusting  any  part  of  the  grave 
responsibility  of  imprisoning  men  and  women  as  a 


Treatment  of  Criminals  201 

punishment  for  crime  to  a  local  government  as  unfitted 
to  bear  such  responsibility  as  a  county  or  town. 

PENITENTIARY    AND    STATE    PRISON 

The  penitentiary,  as  its  name  implies,  was  orig- 
inally invented  as  a  place  of  retirement  for  penitents. 
It  was  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  reform.  The  work- 
house, as  its  name  suggests,  was  also  intended  to  be 
a  place  in  which  a  beneficent  change  should  be  wrought 
in  the  character  of  those  who  are  sent  to  it.  It  was  to 
be  a  house  of  industry,  of  correction,  of  disciplinary 
training.  The  reformatory  has  been  christened  even 
more  recently  with  the  same  hope  of  substituting 
reformation  for  punishment,  and  this  theory  still  per- 
meates to  some  extent  its  regime.  We  have  juvenile 
reformatories  and  others  intended  for  adult  felons 
or  misdemeanants,  usually  technically  first  offenders, 
although  in  fact  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  are 
sent  to  an  institution  like  the  Elmira  Reformatory 
are  already  very  familiar  with  criminal  courts  and 
their  penalties.  There  is  now  no  generally  accepted 
distinction  between  prison  and  penitentiary.  The  state 
prisons  are  in  some  states  called  penitentiaries  and 
the  term  is  also  used  for  federal  prisons,  while  in 
New  York  it  is  a  county  institution,  distinct  from 
the  state  prisons,  in  which  the  graver  crimes  are  pun- 
ished. Reformatories  have  come  to  be  so  much  like 
prisons  that  institutions  which  might  formerly  have 
been  called  by  that  name  are  now  often  known  as 


202  Social  Work 

industrial  schools,  or  by  some  non-committal  name, 
such  as  Whittier  School  or  Children's  Village. 

The  attempt  to  make  prisons  useful  to  their  inmates 
is  never  quite  given  up,  although  the  results  are  sadly 
discouraging.  Society  cannot  afford  to  give  up  the 
attempt.  The  prison  is  a  sober  reality  of  our  existing 
social  order — one  of  the  most  stubborn  and  dominating 
realities.  To  condemn  the  thousands  of  prisoners  to 
isolation  and  also  to  neglect  is  impossible.  .  Therefore 
we  have  voluntary  prison  associations  and  other  agen- 
cies, which  are  constantly  seeking  to  improve  the  penal 
codes  and  criminal  procedure  and  the  management  of 
prisons,  to  secure  the  appointment  of  capable  and  honest 
superintendents  and  wardens,  to  keep  the  prison  ad- 
ministration free  from  corrupt  politics,  and  to  make  it 
serve  its  professed  purpose  of  social  defense  against 
crime.  We  have  also  official  state  commissions  and 
frequent  legislative  committees,  whose  function  it  is 
to  advise  the  legislatures,  to  report  on  the  conditions  in 
the  prisons.  We  have  a  variety  of  prisoners'  aid  so- 
cieties, to  help  discharged  prisoners  and  the  families 
of  those  who  are  in  prison.  We  have  an  increasing 
number  of  private  citizens  who  independently  or  in  as- 
sociation with  the  official  or  voluntary  agencies  strive 
to  the  same  worthy  ends. 

THE  GOAL  :      ELIMINATION  OF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL 
IDEA  OF  THE  PRISON 

The  dimly  recognized  goal  of  social  reform  in  the 


Treatment  of  Criminals  203 

field  of  crime  is  such  a  transformation  in  our  system 
as  will  eliminate  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  prison 
altogether.  While  that  idea  persists  each  new  institu- 
tion— penitentiary,  workhouse,  reformatory,  or  what- 
ever it  may  be  called — will  gravitate  toward  its  level. 
Let  the  responsibility  for  fixing  terms  of  imprison- 
ment be  taken  away  from  the  judges  altogether,  leaving 
to  them  only  what  they  are  well  qualified  to  do,  viz., 
decide  whether  a  crime  has  been  committed  and 
whether  the  person  charged  with  it  is  in  fact  the 
one  who  has  committed  it;  and  let  all  subsequent  pro- 
ceedings be  transferred  to  a  wholly  different  group, 
who  in  consultation  would  be  qualified  to  decide  the 
medical,  educational,  economic,  and  social  problems 
involved  in  the  rational  treatment  of  the  convicted 
offender.  They  would  need,  as  has  been  suggested,  a 
detention  place  for  the  study  of  their  charges,  and 
there,  taking  whatever  time  might  be  necessary,  they 
would  determine  whether  they  are  in  reality  normal  but 
untaught,  or  patients  to  be  treated  or  permanently 
segregated.  From  detention  laboratory  they  would  go 
either  into  a  school  or  a  hospital.  The  prison,  and 
all  the  degrading  associations  which  belong  with  it, 
would  disappear.  Few  would  ultimately  prove  incor- 
rigible, and  they  only  because  they  are  insane.  This 
is  not  an  easy-going  view  of  crime.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  to  take  crime  seriously,  and  to  bring  to  bear  upon 
the  criminal  all  the  regenerative,  educational,  and  coer- 
cive forces  of  society. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
IMPROVEMENT  OF  CONDITIONS:   I 


Poverty,  disease,  and  crime  furnish  the  bulk  of  the 
social  work  undertaken  by  individuals,  by  voluntary 
associations,  religious  and  secular,  and  by  the  govern- 
ments, federal,  state,  and  local.  Social  service  may 
be  necessary  or  desirable  for  an  individual  or  a  family 
not  actually  dependent,  if  there  are  reasons  to  fear 
that  the  earning  capacity  is  diminishing  or  that  in  some 
other  way  the  line  of  economic  insufficiency  is  within 
sight.  It  may  be  necessary  or  advisable  for  those  who 
are  not  already  so  ill  as  to  require  hospital  care,  if  there 
are  reasons  to  anticipate  a  break-down,  physical  or 
mental;  if  there  are  discernible  dangers  to  health  which 
a  social  worker  could  remove  or  diminish.  It  may  be 
necessary  or  essential  to  anticipate  the  intervention  of 
the  police;  to  intervene  in  the  spirit  of  social  work  to 
break  up  associations  and  influences  which  are  likely 
to  lead  to  criminal  conduct.  The  churches,  clubs, 
lodges,  settlements,  craft  unions,  political  organiza- 
tions, and  other  social  institutions  which  bring  people 
together  on  some  other  basis  than  that  of  failure  in 
life,  have  innumerable  opportunities  to  do  what  a  set- 

204 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  205 

tlement  worker  has  called  "second-story  case-work," 
i.  e.,  social  work  similar  to  that  which  charitable  agen- 
cies do  for  their  families,  but  before  the  crisis  is 
reached  which  would  justify  application  to  a  charitable 
society.  Finding  a  job  of  a  suitable  kind  for  a  boy 
or  a  girl  just  out  of  school,  reconciling  man  and  wife 
or  parent  and  child,  keeping  an  inebriate  or  a  drug 
addict  away  from  temptation,  counselling  an  immigrant 
in  regard  to  the  locality  where  his  labor  is  needed, 
advising  a  tenant  as  to  his  rights  and  his  duties,  secur- 
ing bail  for  an  accused  person  awaiting  trial,  and 
countless  other  services,  may  be  needed  by  almost  any 
one,  and  they  are  far  more  typical  than  the  traditional 
giving  of  an  order  for  groceries  or  fuel  of  the  activi- 
ties of  the  social  w^orkers  in  the  families  which  come 
under  their  care.  The  technique  which  the  latter 
acquire  should  therefore  become  familiar  to  the  largest 
possible  number  of  people,  and  the  common  sense  and 
knowledge  of  ordinary  affairs  which  plain  people  dis- 
play in  their  relations  with  one  another  should  permeate 
social  work,  to  disinfect  and  correct  what  Bishop  Brent 
calls  "the  crippling  conceit  of  undue  specialism." 

PREVENTIVE    CASE    WORK 

Social  work  in  families  may  be  called  preventive 
quite  as  justifiably  as  that  which  is  done  to  improve 
social  conditions.  The  main  purpose  of  home  service 
and  of  much  institutional  treatment  is  preventive.  To 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  illness  or  dependence  is  in 


206  Social  Work 

the  mind  of  the  physician  and  social  worker  ahke,  even 
while  they  are  relieving  present  distressing  symptoms. 
Probation  of  an  offender  is  nothing  else  than  an 
attempt  at  prevention,  and  police  departments  are 
specifically  charged  with  the  prevention  of  crimes.  It 
is  a  very  short-sighted  or  perverted  view  of  a  police 
force  that  gauges  its  efficiency  by  the  number  of  arrests 
and  convictions.  It  is  an  equally  inadequate  test  of  a 
relief  society  to  ask  how  much  money  it  spends  for 
relief  as  compared  with  what  is  often  mistakenly  called 
"overhead"  or  "administrative"  expense,  but  should 
be  regarded  as  cost  of  service.  Relief  societies  do  have 
administrative  expenses,  properly  so-called,  but  they 
do  not  include  the  salaries  paid  to  social  workers  en- 
gaged in  home  service.  These  visitors,  if  qualified  for 
their  duties,  are  engaged  primarily  in  preventive  work, 
and  whether  they  should  spend  much  or  little  for 
material  relief  depends  entirely  upon  circumstances. 
11ie  cost  of  their  service  is  as  little  overhead  or  ad- 
ministrative expense  as  is  the  cost  of  the  relief. 

THE    TEMPERANCE    MOVEMENT 

In  addition  to  all  that  social  work  does  or  should 
do  for  the  poor,  for  the  sick,  and  for  those  who  have 
offended  against  the  laws,  and  all  that  is  done  by 
social  workers  or  others  for  particular  individuals  and 
families  who,  although  not  dependent,  have  difficult 
problems  analogous  to  those  which  arise  in  dependent 
families,  there  remains  the  kind  of  social  work  which 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  207 

is  concerned  with  the  neighborhood  or  the  nation  as 
a  whole,  with  handicapped  groups  as  distinct  from  indi- 
viduals, with  working  or  living  conditions  which  re- 
quire correction. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  most  widely  diffused  illustra- 
tions of  this  kind  of  social  work  is  what  is  known  as 
the  temperance  movement.  It  has  had  two  main  divi- 
sions :  the  moral  appeal  for  personal  temperance, 
eventually  for  total  abstinence;  and  the  political  agita- 
tion for  the  control,  eventually  for  the  entire  prohibi- 
tion, of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages. 
The  one  side  has  on  the  whole  reinforced  the  other, 
though  there  have  been  some  temperance  advocates 
who  have  not  been  prohibitionists.  The  history  of  the 
temperance  movement  in  America  is  instructive.  The 
idea  that  it  has  been  merely  the  expression  of  a  puri- 
tanical view  of  life,  of  a  fondness  for  sumptuary  legis- 
lation, of  a  desire  to  dictate  the  food,  dress,  or  amuse- 
ments of  neighbors,  has  very  little  foundation.  The 
evils  of  strong  drink  are  too  obvious,  too  wide-spread, 
too  intricately  mixed  up  with  every  other  evil  which 
social  workers  encounter,  to  permit  temperance  advo- 
cates to  be  described  as  social  meddlers.  The  inebriate 
is  the  enemy  not  only  of  himself  but  of  his  family  and 
his  community.  He  increases  disease,  vice,  poverty, 
and  crime.  Not  his  ill  will  but  his  weakness  is  his 
undoing.  He  cannot  protect  himself.  Society  must 
protect  him  by  removing  the  opportunity  for  his  indul- 
gence.    Not  the  prospective  victim,  but  the  one  who 


208  Social  Work 

would  profit  by  exploiting  his  weakness,  is  the  objective. 
The  movement  naturally  came  to  a  head  in  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League.  It  was  the  saloon,  with  its  attractions, 
its  glitter  and  sociability,  its  club  life  concealing  and 
camouflaging  its  evil,  that  was  the  legitimate  object  of 
attack;  but  the  brewery  and  the  distillery,  of  which 
the  saloon  was  only  the  retailing  outpost,  had  to  go 
also. 

The  enactment  of  national  prohibition  does  not  end, 
although  it  brings  to  a  dramatic  climax,  the  temperance 
movement.  There  will  still  be  occasion  for  educational 
campaigns,  different  from,  but  not  less  extensive  than 
those  in  the  past.  Scientific  instruction  in  the  effects 
of  alcohol  will  still  be  desirable.  Substitutes  for  the 
social  life  of  the  saloon  will  be  desirable,  even  though 
the  effects  of  the  disappearance  of  the  saloon  in  this 
respect  may  have  been  exaggerated.  -,  Persistent  and 
reasonable  enforcement  of  the  prohibition  laws  will 
require  the  enlightenment  of  public  opinion  and  the 
vigorous  support  of  courageous  officials.  Pessimism 
in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  such  enforcement  will 
easily  arise,  and  against  it  law-abiding  citizens  will 
need  to  be  on  their  guard.  The  prohibition  of  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages  is  a  sound 
public  policy,  because  it  is  the  only  known  method  of 
getting  rid  of  alcoholism,  a  disease  comparable  only  to 
tuberculosis;  the  only  known  method  of  destroying 
the  saloon,  the  greatest  curse  which  our  American  social 
life  has  developed;  the  only  known  method  of  eliminat- 


hnprovement  of  Conditions:  I  209 

ing  that  vast  amount  of  poverty  which  results  from 
the  intemperance  of  men  and  women  whose  hard-earned 
incomes  have  yielded  fortunes  to  distillers,  brewers,  and 
owners  of  saloon  properties,  rather  than  the  necessi- 
ties and  comforts  of  life  to  the  wage-earners  on  the 
margin  of  subsistence.  Exploiting  employers  may  well 
be  disturbed  when  underpaid  workers,  instead  of  gather- 
ing in  the  saloon  to  indulge  in  drunken  cursing  against 
the  boss,  gather  instead  in  their  homes  or  their  unions, 
with  clear  brains,  to  think  out  their  economic  prob- 
lems, and  to  decide  thoughtfully  how  they  may  trans- 
form their  drudgery  into  such  work  as  rational  human 
beings  may  enjoy. 

HOUSING 

The  housing  movement  is  largely  an  effort  to  over- 
come the  recognized  evils  >f  city  tenements :  over- 
crowding, dark  and  ill-ventilated  homes,  danger  from 
fires  and  from  insecure  construction,  lack  of  toilets 
and  running  water,  bad  housekeeping  in  the  common 
services,  such  as  the  removal  of  ashes  and  garbage 
and  the  care  of  halls  and  stairways.  To  these  evils, 
which  housing  laws  or  ordinances  now  fairly  control 
in  many  cities,  there  has  been  added  after  the  war,  at 
a  time  when  the  cost  of  living  is  in  other  respects 
going  down,  excessive  rentals,  caused  in  part  by  in- 
creased expenses  of  landlords,  but  also  in  part  by  con- 
spiracies on  the  part  of  producers  of  building  materials 
to  extort  excessive  prices,   and  by  complicated  labor 


210  Social  IVork 

situations  which  have  gravely  threatened  the  public 
interest  through  making  the  construction  of  houses 
unduly  expensive,  if  not  impossible. 

The  housing  reform  movement  rests  on  the  ideas 
that  the  physical  basis  of  the  home  is  decisive  of  the 
character  of  family  life,  and  that  after  houses  are  once 
built,  they  will  be  occupied;  that  a  safe,  decent,  and 
comfortable  dwelling  is  the  first  essential  of  a  normal 
standard  of  life;  that  the  laws  may  properly  prevent 
the  construction  of  unsafe,  ill  ventilated  congregate 
dwellings,  however  profitable  they  may  be  to  specula- 
tive builders  or  owners;  that  supervision  by  experts 
over  each  stage  of  construction  is  essential,  and  subse- 
quent official  inspection  to  discover  unsanitary  or  unsafe 
conditions;  and  that  an  enlightened  public  opinion 
among  tenants  and  citizens  generally  is  the  only  safe- 
guard for  the  maintenance  of  good  conditions. 

The  erection  of  model  tenements,  and  smaller  dwell- 
ings, for  one  or  two  families,  by  public-spirited  philan- 
thropists, has  shown  that  it  is  possible  to  make  a 
reasonable  return  on  such  investments ;  and  the  manage- 
ment of  old  properties  after  putting  them  into  good 
condition,  on  the  plan  originated  by  Octavia  Hill  in 
London,  has  shown  that  housing  reform  need  not  be 
limited  to  new  and  expensive  buildings.  The  rent 
collectors  have  under  this  system  become  social  workers, 
with  unique  opportunities  for  useful  service  in  the 
homes  of  their  tenants. 

The  logical  first  step  for  a  citizen's  committee  or 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  211 

association  bent  on  improving  housing  conditions  is 
to  make  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  local  conditions. 
The  particular  evils  to  be  remedied  may  be  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  which  had  been  the  object  of  reform 
elsewhere.  There  may  be  ample  light  and  air  in  all 
homes,  but  dangerous  privy  vaults  or  cesspools.  There 
may  be  windows,  but  the  dwellers  may  not  appreciate 
the  importance  of  opening  them.  The  houses  may  be 
scrupulously  swept  and  cleaned,  but  from  unswept  and 
unsprinkled  streets  there  may  be  a  constant  sifting  in 
of  dust  and  dirt.  There  may  be  piles  of  rubbish  to 
be  removed.  Real  estate  taxation  may  be  obsolete, 
oppressive,  or  inequitable.  There  may  be  no  town 
plan,  or  it  may  be  a  very  bad  one.  From  the  National 
Housing  Association  or  other  source  expert  advice 
may  now  usually  be  obtained  in  the  making  of  this 
initial  investigation.  On  the  strength  of  the  knowledge 
thus  obtained  it  will  be  decided  whether  new  laws  or 
ordinances  are  necessary,  or  merely  the  enforcement 
of  existing  regulations  and  the  education  of  builders, 
landlords,  and  tenants.  There  are  many  natural  allies 
in  any  such  educational  movement.  Architects  are 
naturally  interested.  Civic  bodies  like  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  should  be.  The  press  should  be  sym- 
pathetic. Sermons  might  well  be  preached  on  the  rela- 
tion between  decent  homes  and  a  wholesome  family 
life.  Women's  clubs  are  natural  leaders  in  this  sort  of 
social  work.  There  is  need  also  of  the  individual 
enthusiast  who  is  willing  to  run  the  risk  of  becoming 


212  Social  Work 

a  nuisance,  but  who  has  the  tact  and  good  sense  which 
will  enable  him  to  keep  up  the  agitation  without  actual 
offense,  unless  to  those  whom  it  is  finally  necessary  to 
coerce. 

We  are  only  at  the  beginning  of  this  task.  The  com- 
plete re-planning  of  our  cities,  the  creation  of  beautiful, 
sanitary,  and  well  located  homes,  is  the  large  goal 
of  social  work  in  the  field  of  housing. 

LOANS  :      PAWNBROKING  AND  ITS  KIN 

Pawnbroking,  chattel  mortgage  loans  on  furniture, 
and  salary  loans  have  given  rise  to  a  reform  movement 
to  be  accomplished  through  public  education,  legisla- 
tion, and  Avhat  may  be  called  socialized  or  public-spirited 
investment.  These  forms  of  credit  business  are  quite 
as  legitimate  in  themselves  as  the  loans  on  real  estate, 
stocks  and  bonds,  or  similar  collateral  security  or  com- 
mercial paper,  which  form  the  staple  business  of  banks. 
The  pawnbroker  and  the  "loan  shark"  have  a  bad 
name,  not  because  there  is  anything  inherently  degrad- 
ing in  their  kind  of  banking,  but  because  there  have 
been  no  recognized  standards  for  carrying  it  on,  no 
public  interest  in  the  prevention  of  unfair  and  extor- 
tionate practices,  no  means  of  protecting  the  borrower 
in  his  rights.  The  pawnshop  and  its  three  gilt  balls 
had  come  to  be  associated  with  the  "fence"  of  stolen 
goods  and  the  usurer's  sharp  practices.  The  family  that 
borrowed  money  for  living  expenses  on  the  security 
of  their   furniture;  or  that  bought   furniture   on  the 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  213 

installment  plan,  leaving  title  in  the  dealer  until  the 
last  payment  was  made,  was  very  apt  to  lose  the 
furniture  in  the  end  or  to  pay  far  more  than  its  value. 
Worst  of  all  was  the  position  of  the  clerk  who,  without 
either  pawnbroking  or  chattel  mortgage  securities  to 
offer,  entered  into  a  soul-enslaving  contract,  often  one 
which  he  could  not  afford  to  have  either  his  family  or 
his  employer  know  about,  and  then,  under  blackmailing 
threats,  paid  and  paid,  each  renewal  bringing  him 
further  and   further  into  the  mire. 

The  European  Monts  de  Picte  are  institutions — 
usually  municipal — for  meeting  the  demand  for  small 
loans  on  a  pledge  of  clothing,  jewelry,  or  other  per- 
sonal property.  There  are  advantages  and  serious  dis- 
advantages in  governmental  management  and  the  use 
of  public  funds  in  this  field. 

The  Provident  Loan  Society  of  New  York — a  sort 
of  philanthropic  pawnshop — undertook  in  the  early 
nineties  to  combat  the  recognized  evils  of  the  old  unreg- 
ulated pawnshop  by  the  method  of  competition.  Sev- 
eral well-to-do  and  public-spirited  citizens,  no  one  of 
whom  would  perhaps  have  cared  to  go  into  the  pawn- 
broking  business  individually,  formed  a  corporation, 
for  which  the  legislature  granted  a  special  charter,  to 
make  loans  on  the  sort  of  personal  property  which 
pawnshops  ordinarily  accept  in  pledge.  They  limited 
profits  to  six  per  cent  on  the  money  secured  by  the  issue 
of  certificates,  and  they  also  raised  funds  by  bond 
issues  at  a  lower  rate.     They  fixed  interest  charges 


214  Social  Work 

much  below  the  maximum  rates  allowed  by  law,  and 
eliminated  the  practices  through  which  the  pawnshops 
exploited  their  customers  and  evaded  the  law. 
They  have  extended  their  business  through  branches 
into  all  those  parts  of  Greater  New  York  where  such 
facilities  are  most  needed,  and  have  demonstrated  on 
a  large  scale  that  the  reputation  of  a  business  which 
had  been  made  disreputable  by  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  carried  on  can  be  redeemed  by  fair  practices  and 
sound  social  policies.  The  Society  now  owns  the 
numerous  buildings  in  which  its  business  is  conducted, 
has  accumulated  a  large  surplus,  and  loans  annually 
many  millions  of  dollars.  If  the  rate  of  interest  on 
secure  long-term  investments  permanently  remains 
above  six  per  cent  the  Society  may  have  difficulty  in 
obtaining,  under  its  present  charter,  the  capital  re- 
quired for  an  expanding  business. 

The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  has  made  an  exhaus- 
tive study  of  this  subject  and  effected  far-reaching  re- 
forms in  the  field  of  industrial  loans.  From  its  exam- 
ination of  actual  conditions  the  Foundation  reached  the 
conclusion  that  loan  sharks  thrived  chiefly  because 
existing  laws  were  too  stringent  to  attract  legitimate 
capital  into  the  small  loan  business.  It  was  seen  that 
the  only  effective  way  to  remedy  the  situation  was  by 
legislation  which  would  permit  a  sufficiently  high  rate 
of  interest  to  encourage  open  competition  among 
lenders  and  at  the  same  time  provide  machinery  for 
enforcement  of  the  law.      The  Foundation  therefore 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  215 

recommended  the  adoption  of  the  so-called  Uniform 
Small  Loan  Law,  which  legalizes  an  interest  rate  of 
3y2  per  cent  per  month  on  loans  up  to  $300,  and  places 
the  business  under  the  supervision  of  the  state  banking 
department  or  other  form  of  state  control.  This  law 
has  already  been  enacted  in  nine  states  of  the  union, 
and  efforts  for  its  extension  are  being  made  each  year. 

Acting  in  concert  with  the  Foundation  in  its  en- 
deavor to  redeem  the  small  loan  business  and  to  stan- 
dardize legislation  pertaining  thereto^  is  the  National 
Federation  of  Remedial  Loan  Associations,  whose 
membership  is  composed  of  semi-philanthropic  so- 
cieties, operating  in  the  leading  cities  of  the  United 
States,  which  make  small  loans  upon  the  pledge  or 
mortgage  of  personal  property  at  reasonable  interest 
rates  and  limit  their  returns  to  shareholders  in  pro- 
portion. They  have  also  aligned  in  support  of  the 
Uniform  Small  Loan  Law  most  of  the  former  high- 
rate  lenders,  now  organized  as  the  American  Industrial 
Lenders  Association,  whose  declaration  of  principles 
is  substantially  the  same  as  that  of  the  National  Federa- 
tion; except  that  it  contains  no  provision  for  limita- 
iton  of  dividends.  A  similar  movement  has  recently 
been  started  by  the  National  Federation  for  the  enact- 
ment of  a  uniform  law  to  regulate  the  business  of 
pawnbroking. 

The  problem,  as  in  the  case  of  housing  reform,  has 
three  distinct  aspects:      (1)   legislation,  to  determine^ 
the  level  below  which  no  one  shall  be  allowed  to  con- 


216  Social  Work 

duct  the  business  at  all;  (2)  public  education  in  the 
principles  on  which  the  legitimate  needs  should  be  met, 
and  as  to  the  evils  which  can  and  those  which  cannot 
be  remedied  by  legislation;  and  (3)  the  encouragement 
of  investment  on  a  sound  but  not  an  exploiting  basis, 
as  a  means  of  bringing  to  bear  beneficent  competition. 
In  housing  "philanthropy  and  five  per  cent"  gave  a 
certain  number  of  model  dwellings  which  answered 
once  for  all  the  dishonest  plea  that  safe  and  decent 
houses  could  not  be  built  to  rent  for  a  reasonable  sum. 
Public  education  is  indispensable.  The  fundamental 
essential,  however,  is  a  comprehensive  housing  law  and 
effective  administrative  machinery  for  its  enforcement. 
Reform  of  the  small  loan  industry  and  some  other 
kinds  of  social  work  may  be  summed  up  in  three 
stages :  public-spirited  or  socially  minded  investment — 
which  does  not  necessarily  mean  creating  a  new  busi- 
ness; legislative  and  administrative  control  of  extor- 
tionate, exploiting  practices;  and  an  educational  cam- 
paign, based  on  accurate  knowledge  and  unquenchable 
enthusiasm  for  justice  and  the  social  welfare. 

-4^  THE   PREVENTION   OF    TUBERCULOSIS 

Social  work  has  found  a  congenial  and  fruitful  field 
in  the  prevention  of  disease.  For  special  reasons  the 
prevention  of  tuberculosis  has  offered  the  most  appro- 
priate and  the  largest  opportunity.  Tuberculosis  is  a 
chronic  disease;  communicable;  and  susceptible  to  treat- 


luiproz'cmcnt  of  Conditions:  I  217 

ment.  It  is  especially  prevalent  in  the  early  years  of 
adult  and  married  life,  when  earnings  are  especially  im- 
portant. It  is  aggravated  by  poverty,  under-nourish- 
ment,  over-crowding,  continuance  of  work  after  symp- 
toms of  the  disease  are  discernible — especially  indoor 
work.  Public  knowledge  of  the  means  of  prevention  and 
of  the  means  of  cure  is  more  essential  than  in  the  case  of 
any  other  disease,  merely  because  of  its  prevalence  and 
because  the  measures  required  are  largely  within  reach 
if  they  are  known.  Cleanhness,  pure  air,  freedom 
from  injurious  food  and  occupation,  and  an  abundance 
of  simple,  nourishing  diet,  are  the  principal  remedial 
measures.  To  secure  these  and  to  educate  the  public 
in  regard  to  the  disease  are  the  main  objects  of  the 
tuberculosis  associations. 

Educational  campaigns  have  been  carried  on  through 
public  lectures,  newspaper  articles,  pamphlets  and 
leaflets,  sermons,  exhibits  and  lantern  shows,  motion 
pictures,  home  visits  by  physicians,  nurses,  and  social 
workers,  circulars  from  health  departments,  from  trade 
unions  to  their  own  members,  travelling  demonstrations 
through  country  districts,  and  every  other  ingenious 
device  which  will  compel  attention,  arouse  and  satisfy 
curiosity.  Probably  no  other  form  of  organized  social 
work  has  utilized  so  great  a  diversity  of  methods  or 
has  such  positive  results  to  show.  This  educational 
work  has  commanded  larger  resources  and  has  been 
prosecuted  with  more  sustained  energy  in  this  country 
than  in  any  other.    For  lack  of  it  France,  although  the 


218  Social  Work 

pioneer  in  certain  aspects  of  the  anti-tuberculosis  move- 
ment, found  the  ravages  of  the  disease  in  her  hastily- 
mobilized  armies  greater  than  would  have  been  neces- 
sary. The  Rockefeller  Commission  on  the  prevention 
of  tuberculosis,  with  the  American  Red  Cross,  inaugu- 
rated a  campaign  in  the  civil  population  of  the  interior 
of  France,  with  the  full  approval  and  co-operation  of 
the  French  authorities,  as  a  legitimate  means  of  prose- 
cuting the  war  and  relieving  its  victims  of  some  of  its 
unhappy  consequences.  In  Italy  also  inter-allied  activi- 
ties of  this  kind  were  carried  on,  partly  with  funds 
contributed  voluntarily  by  American  citizens  for  pat- 
riotic war  purposes. 

The  public  had  to  be  taught  the  importance  of  cleanly 
habits  by  the  consumptive,  the  necessity  of  preventing 
the  sputum  which  contains  the  germs  of  the  disease 
from  becoming  a  source  of  danger  to  others,  the  truth 
on  the  other  hand  that  the  cleanly  and  conscientious 
consumptive  is  not  a  source  of  danger  to  his  neighbors, 
the  danger  of  quack  remedies  and  the  falsity  of  the 
hopes  which  their  advertisements  create,  the  advan- 
tages of  early  and  competent  diagnosis  and  the  bearing 
of  this  on  the  professional  training  of  physicians  in 
general  practice,  as  well  as  of  those  who  are  to  engage 
in  public  health  service  and  of  those  who  are  to  become 
specialists  in  this  field.  The  public  had  also  to  be 
persuaded  that  large  expenditures  from  taxation  are 
necessary  for  sanatoria,  hospitals  for  advanced  cases, 
clinics,  instructive  nursing,  inspection  of  lodging  houses 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  219 

and  of  dairy  herds,  and  for  the  relief  of  the  families 
of  patients  under  treatment.  Private  funds  are  also 
given  for  some  of  these  purposes,  especially  for  the 
treatment  in  sanatoria  of  early  cases  and  for  home 
relief,  but  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  convincing 
lessons  of  the  campaign  v\/as  that  private  enterprise  was 
wholly  inadecjuate  for  the  main  task,  and  that  its  great- 
est contribution  would  probably  lie  in  the  education 
of  the  public  to  the  necessity  for  competent  well-financed 
public  health  departments,  municipal  and  state,  for  a 
great  increase  in  the  provision  for  institutional  treat- 
ment, state  and  county  and  city,  and  even  in  the  educa- 
tional campaign,  for  a  very  active  participation  by 
vigorous,  non-political  public  health  services,  federal, 
state,  and  local,  under  new  and  more  comprehensive 
health  laws./_In  supporting  these  policies  the  tuber- 
culosis movement  has  not  only  served  its  own  imme- 
diate purpose,  but  has  given  an  immense  impetus  to 
the  cause  of  public  health. 

INFANT     MORTALITY 

Next  In  importance  to  the  tuberculosis  movement, 
in  the  field  where  preventive  medicine  and  social  work 
unite,  is  that  for  the  prevention  of  infant  mortality. 
Here  also  the  greatest  need  has  been  for  instruction; 
but  it  is  especially  young  mothers  and  prospective 
mothers  who  require  to  be  taught.  In  no  other  field 
are  the  results  so  instantaneous  and  so  gratifying  as 


220  Social  Work 

in  this.  The  welfare  of  the  unborn  and  newly  born 
infant  is  so  completely  dependent  upon  the  knowledge, 
the  character,  and  the  resources  of  one  person — the 
mother — and  the  mother  has  so  powerful  a  motive  for 
responding  to  instruction,  that  startling  results  almost 
invariably  follow  any  active  and  well-directed  attempt 
to  lessen  miscarriages,  still  births,  and  sickness  and 
death  in  infancy. 

Inadequate  income  and  a  low  standard  of  living  are 
a  main  cause  of  infant  deaths.  Work  by  the  mother 
just  before  and  just  after  confinement  is  one  of  the 
direct  causes,  but  this  is  of  course  ordinarily  a  con- 
sequence of  low  income.  Artificial  feeding  instead  of 
maternal  nursing  is  partly  due  to  the  oceupatiOTT-or 
mothers,  but  much  more  frequently  to  custom,  failure 
tcrappreciate  the  difference  which  it  will  make  to  the 
child,  and  a  lack  of  knowledge  as  to  how  to  overcome 
initial  difficulties.  The  prevention  of  infant  disease 
and  mortality  involves  above  all  aid  to  mothers  in  the 
care  of  well  babies.  In  Portland,  Oregon,  to  take  a 
random  example,  there  is  a  "Well  Baby  Clinic," 
thronged  with  young  nursing  mothers — Jewish,  Italian, 
Negro,  and  of  every  other  description  represented  in 
the  neighborhood — eager  for  competent  advice  about 
their  own  diet  and  the  right  care  for  their  infants; 
watching  their  gain  in  weight,  the  correction  of  ana- 
tomical or  functional  defects,  the  establishment  of 
normalcy ;  giving  ample  evidence  that  they  are  profiting 
by  such  instruction,  and  that  the  next  baby  will  get 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  221 

even  more  benefit  than  the  one  now  in  arms.  In  such 
a  clinic  young  doctors  get  the  kind  of  post-graduate 
observation  and  advice  which  even  the  best  lying-in 
hospital  or  babies'  hospital  cannot  give  them,  to  the 
great  advantage  of  the  mothers  and  babies  who  will 
come  later  under  their  care  in  private  practice.  The 
question  irresistibly  arises  why  such  clinics  and  centers 
of  teaching  should  not  be  multiplied  a  thousand-fold. 
However,  prompt  and  skillful  professional  care  for 
sick  babies,  especially  for  the  intestinal  ailments  of 
the  hot  summer  months,  fresh  air  facilities  quickly 
available,  provision  of  sufficient  and  proper  food  for 
mothers,  freedom  from  the  necessity  of  earning  a 
living  while  nursing  and  caring  for  young  children, 
and  more  generally,  everything  which  favorably  affects 
the  standard  of  living  of  the  family,  have  to  be  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  the  campaign  to  prevent 
unnecessary  deaths  of  infants.  Foreign-born  mothers 
who  learn  to  read  and  speak  English  and  who  adopt 
the  American  manner  of  life  are  more  likely  to  take 
better  care  of  their  young  children — not  because  the 
English  language  or  the  American  standards  are  neces- 
sarily inherently  better  than  those  with  which  they 
have  been  familiar,  but  because  they  are  better  in 
American  communities,  and  because  they  are  the  chan- 
nels through  which  increased  facilities,  larger  resources, 
are  likely  to  come.  Bottle  feeding,  however,  when 
there  is  mother's  milk,  is  not  among  the  American 
customs  to  be  recommended  to  foreign-born  women. 


222  Social  Work 

/ 

HEALTH    OF    MOTHERS    AND    INFANTS 

'  Perhaps  the  most  important  outcome  of  the  Chil- 
dren's Bureau  Conferences  of  1919  to  which  reference 
has  been  made  in  other  connections  was  their  formula- 
tion of  minimum  standards  of  public  protection  of 
the  health  of  mothers  and  children.  These  Standards 
call  for  maternity  or  pre-natal  centers  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide for  all  cases  not  receiving  pre-nataLsup£rvisiQii 
from  private  physicians,  and  outlinelTTe  work  of  such 
centers ;  for  dental,  venereal,  and  other  clinics  for  treat- 
ment needed  during  pregnancy ;  for  maternity  hospitals 
or  wards,  and  free  or  part-payment  obstetrical  care  in 
every  necessitous  case  at  home  or  in  hospital ;  for  train- 
ing, Hcensing,  and  supervision  of  midwives;  for  ade- 
quate income  to  allow  the  mother  to  remain  in  the  home 
through  the  nursing  period;  and  for  education  of  the 
general  public  as  to  the  problems  presented  by  maternal 
and  infant  mortality  and  their  solution.  The  Standards 
call  for  birth  registration;  children's  health  centers; 
home  visits  by  public  health  nurses  to  all  infants  and 
children  of  pre-school  age  needing  care;  dental  and 
other  clinics  for  children;  hospitals  or  beds  in  general 
hospitals  for  all  sick  infants  and  young  children;  state 
licensing  and  supervision  of  all  child-caring  institu- 
tions and  homes  in  which  young  children  are  cared 
for;  and  general  educational  work  in  the  prevention 
of  communicable  disease  and  in  hygiene  and  feeding 
of  infants  and  young  children. 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  223 

PREVENTION    OF  VENEREAL   DISEASE 

In  the  toilet  rooms  of  railway  clay  coaches  and 
sleepers  throughout  the  country  during  and  just  after 
the  war  a  neatly  framed  poster  informed  the  public 
that  "the  government  has  declared  war  on  venereal 
diseases."  Even  before  the  government  declared  peace 
with  Germany,  some  of  these  posters  disappeared,  on 
the  return  of  the  railways  to  their  owners;  but  the  war 
they  announced  has  not  been  won.  The  information 
and  advice  of  this  poster  and  of  similar  publications 
of  the  federal  Health  Service,  the  medical  services 
of  the  army  and  navy,  the  state  and  city  boards  of 
health,  and  of  the  very  active  voluntary  agencies  like 
the  American  Social  Hygiene  Association,  are  still 
needed. 

The  venereal  diseases — chief  of  which  are  syphilis 
and  gonorrhoea — do  not  rank  high  in  mortality  tables, 
but  they  are  nevertheless  among  the  most  crippling  and 
destructive  diseases.  They  result  in  blindness,  paral- 
ysis, and  sterility.  They  cause  unhappiness  and  suffer- 
ing to  wives  and  children,  and — because  of  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  usually  communicated — shame  and 
disgrace  to  the  men  who  acquire  them.  That  entire 
continence  is  not  injurious ;  that  the  best  and  only  secure 
reliance  against  these  diseases  is  to  avoid  the  kind  of 
personal  contact  through  which  they  are  communicated ; 
that  charlatans  with  quack  remedies  are  equally  to  be 
shunned;  that  those  who  have  been  infected,  whether 


224  Social  Work 

innocently  or  not,  should  seek  the  immediate  advice  of 
a  reputable  physician  in  private  practice  or  else  apply 
to  a  clinic  for  venereal  diseases,  in  either  case  with  the 
maximum  guarantee  of  complete  privacy;  and  that 
commercial  vice  should  be  steadily  and  persistently  sup- 
pressed, with  a  view  to  its  elimination,  are  the  principal 
planks  in  the  platform  of  the  campaign  for  the  preven- 
tion of  venereal  disease.  This  campaign,  so  conceived, 
has  a  negative  and  relief  aspect;  but  the  whole  cam- 
paign for  sex  hygiene  has  also  its  brighter,  preventive, 
educational  aspect.  The  biological  processes  of  genera- 
tion, birth,  puberty,  may  be  so  taught  as  to  inspire  re- 
spect for  parenthood  and  a  feeling  of  responsibility  for 
preparing  for  it  in  purity  and  self-restraint.  Life  and 
health,  reproduction  and  growth,  rather  than  vice  and 
disease,  are  the  natural  subjects  of  instruction  in  the 
field  of  sex  hygiene.  The  sex  impulse,  in  normal, 
healthy  children  and  adolescents  who  have  the  occupa- 
tions and  recreations  natural  to  their  changing  minds 
and  bodies,  will  rec|uire  little  conscious  "repression"  or 
"sublimation."  It  requires  frank  explanation,  without 
over-emphasis,  protection  from  artificial  stimulus  and 
unnecessary  exposure  to  temptation;  but  for  the  most 
part  modest  reserve,  in  confidence  that  nature  will 
keep  healthy  and  unspoiled  the  instincts  on  which  the 
very  perpetuity  of  the  race  depends,  if  we  do  not  allow 
them  to  be  perverted. 

Social  work  has  its  task  in  helping  to  establish  a 
single  standard  of  morality  for  both  sexes;  in  rescuing 


Iinprovemeiit  of  Conditions:  I  22S 

girls  from  prostitution  and  boys  from  its  patronage; 
in  the  protection  and  education  of  those  who  because 
of  their  occupation  or  their  personal  weaknesses  are 
especially  exposed  to  temptation ;  in  establishing  special 
clinics  and  securing  the  provision  of  hospital  facilities 
for  the  treatment  of  venereal  disease;  and  especially  in 
promoting  judicious  instruction  in  sex  hygiene  by 
parents,  physicians,  and  teachers. 

CANCER   AND    HEART    DISEASE 

Cancer  is  another  disease  the  control  and  prevention 
of  which  invites  the  methods  of  social  work.  Less  is 
known  of  its  causes,  and  less  spectacular  results  are 
obtainable  from  direct  effort.  Nevertheless  there  are 
some  things  which  the  authorities  feel  warranted  in 
saying  about  its  symptoms,  which  may  lead  to  earlier 
diagnosis  and  to  treatment  by  operation  or  otherwise 
at  a  stage  in  which  favorable  results  are  to  be  expected. 
Such  information  is  printed  in  leaflets  obtainable  from 
the  American  Society  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of 
Cancer.  Hospital  or  home  care  of  patients  who  are 
without  means,  and  the  further  support  of  research, 
appear  to  be  the  main  policies  which  can  be  recom 
mended  with  confidence  in  regard  to  this  bathing  and 
increasingly  prevalent  disease  of  maturity  and  later 
life. 

Organic  diseases  of  the  heart  now  account  for  more 
deaths  than  any  other  of  the  causes  listed  in  the  official 
mortality  tables.     Neither  pneumonia  nor  tuberculosis 


226  Social  Work 

in  all  Its  forms  claims  as  many  victims.*  Heart  disease 
is  also  among  the  increasing,  rather  than  diminishing 
causes  of  mortality;  and  it  is  not  limited  in  its  inci- 
dence to  advanced  age.  Many  children  have  per- 
manently damaged  hearts.  The  disease  is  not  trans- 
missible, like  tuberculosis,  but  there  are  nevertheless 
many  facts  about  its  relief  and  prevention  which  should 
become  more  generally  known,  and  there  are  ways  in 
which  voluntary  contributions  of  money  and  of  service 
may  be  used  to  great  social  advantage.  Among  the 
methods  to  be  advocated  are :  special  heart  clinics, 
which  have  already  been  opened  in  connection  with 
many  hospitals  and  dispensaries;  convalescent  homes 
in  which  special  occupations  are  taught ;  aid  in  securing 
suitable  employment;  vocational  guidance  for  young 
people  who  have  weak  hearts,  to  prevent  their  enter- 
ing what  are  for  them  dangerous  trades;  supervision 
of  the  play  as  well  as  the  work  of  those  who  have  heart 
lesions;  treatment  of  tonsils,  adenoids,  abscesses  about 
the  roots  of  teeth,  to  prevent  the  rheumatic  infection 
which  is  a  principal  cause  of  heart  disease ;  and  finally, 
as  in  every  kind  of  preventive  social  movement,  the 
co-ordination  of  efforts,  the  integration  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  program  for  the  relief  and  prevention  of 
heart  disease,  and  of  this  program  as  a  whole  with 
other  related  movements.  The  pioneer  in  this  move- 
ment for  co-ordination  and  education  is  known  as  the 


*  Census  Bulletin   Number   144:     Mortality  Statistics   for   1919. 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  I  227 

Association  for  the  Prevention  and  Relief  of  Heart 
Disease. 

PUBLIC    HEALTH  :       THE    HEALTH    CENTER 

The  public  health  movement  as  a  whole,  of  which 
those  for  the  prevention  of  particular  diseases  are 
integral  parts,  is  concerned  with  the  control  and  pre- 
vention of  infectious  diseases,  the  education  of  the 
public  in  the  principles  of  personal  and  public  hygiene, 
the  enforcement  of  sanitary  codes,  and  the  collection 
and  interpretation  of  vital  statistics.  The  American 
Public  Health  Association,  through  a  committee,  has 
formulated  standards  for  a  public  health  code  applicable 
to  cities  of  100,000  inhabitants  or  more.*  The  enact- 
ment of  comprehensive  state  laws  with  adequate  provi- 
sion for  their  local  administration  through  qualified, 
non-political,  health  inspectors  and  public  health  nurses 
is  most  essential  and  there  are  as  yet  only  a  few  states 
which  can  boast  such  laws. 

The  health  center — to  the  development  of  which  the 
American  Red  Cross  has  been  devoting  much  of  the 
energy  and  money  released  by  the  gradual  diminution 
of  its  war  work — seems  likely  to  bring  medical  care, 
useful  information,  and  nursing  service,  within  reach 
of  many  who  have  not  heretofore  had  the  benefit  of 
them.  It  has  also  the  aim  of  co-ordinating  public  and 
voluntary  health  activities  so  as  to  prevent  overlapping 


*  These   tentative    standards    are    published    in   the   Journal   of 
Public   Healthy  March,   1921. 


228  •   Social  W_ork 

and  the  neglect  of  the  more  urgent  or  essential  work. 
The  extension  of  home  treatment,  including  nursing, 
to  rural  communities;  the  prompt  discovery  of  those 
who  need  operations  or  other  treatment;  placing  in- 
formation about  available  resources — sanatoria,  asy- 
lums, special  hospitals  or  clinics,  material  relief — at 
the  free  and  equal  disposal  of  all  who  would  profit 
from  such  information,  however  remote  they  may  be 
from  centers  of  population ;  and  elementary  .hygiene 
and  sanitary  instruction,  through  lectures,  leaflets,  and 
personal  conferences,  offer  one  of  the  greatest  fields 
of  usefulness;  and  it  is  most  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that 
the  nation-wide  extent  of  the  chapter  organization  of 
the  Red  Cross  may  result  in  supplying  this  need.  In 
some  states  district  health  boards,  operating  over  a 
county  or  combination  of  counties,  and  in  others  county 
boards  of  public  welfare,  are  working  to  the  same  end, 
either  independently  on  their  own  initiative  or  in  co- 
operation with  Red  Cross  chapters. 

The  final  index  of  the  intelligence  of  the  public  in 
relation  to  health  is  the  death-rate.  A  general  death- 
rate,  however,  important  as  it  is,  tells  less  than  the 
death-rate  for  particular  ages ;  or  one  which  reveals  the 
facts  in  regard  to  some  particular  racial  or  occupational 
group;  or  which  tells  what  is  happening  with  regard 
to  particular  diseases.  The  problem  of  infant  mor- 
tality is  wholly  different  from  that  of  old  age,  the 
tuberculosis  death-rate  from  that  of  cancer.  A  high 
but  diminishing  death-rate  is  less  ominous  than  a  some- 


Improvement  of  Conditiuns:  I  229 

what  lower,  but  persistently  too  high,  rate.  A  low 
death-rate  in  a  relatively  new  country  may  be  due  to 
an  abnormal  age-composition  of  the  population.  The 
death-rate  from  tuberculosis  may  fall  because  of  the 
immigration  of  races  who  have  a  low  mortality  from 
that  particular  disease.  For  these  and  like  .reasons 
great  caution  should  be  exercised  in  drawing  conclu- 
sions from  crude  general  death-rates.  Birth-rates,  and 
the  facts  about  the  prevalence  and  duration  of  disease, 
are  necessary  to  illuminate  the  central,  crucial  facts  re- 
vealed or  concealed  in  the  general  death-rate.  There 
is  a  growing  conviction  that  the  assembling  of  vital 
statistics  for  small  territorial  units — districts,  say,  con- 
taining not  more  than  8,000  residents — is  a  necessary 
foundation  for  a  sound  health  program,  since  this 
makes  possible  the  direction  of  activities  to  localized 
causes  and  areas  with  much  greater  precision. 


CHAPTER    XIV 
IMPROVEMENT  OF  CONDITIONS:  II 


Social  settlements,  institutional  churches,  philan- 
thropic foundations,  and  public  welfare  departments 
of  government,  are  so  many  different  approaches  to 
social  work.  Among  the  various  agencies  through 
which  society  attempts  to  prevent  poverty,  disease,  and 
crime,  or  to  mitigate  their  effects,  or  to  understand 
their  causes,  these  four,  having  quite  different  origins, 
stand  out  above  the  earlier  relief  societies,  hospitals, 
asylums,  churches  which  are  for  worship  alone,  clubs 
which  are  merely  for  the  enjoyment  of  their  members, 
rigid  endowments  for  specific  purposes,  governmental 
services  of  a  traditional  kind. 

SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS 

They  have  certain  features  in  common.  They  are 
experimental,  relatively  free  from  the  dead  hand.  They 
have  few  inherited  obligations.  The  settlement  is  the 
most  elastic,  unconventional,  irresponsible.  It  may  do 
what  its  hands  find  to  do.  Its  residents  have  unusual 
license  to  be  as  sympathetic  with  the  poor  and  oppressed, 
as  indignant  against  injustice  or  corruption,   as  any 

230 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  231 

radical.  The  war  gave  a  temporary  handle  to  those 
who  were  hard  pressed  by  such  criticism.  By  posing 
as  a  super-patriot,  an  apologist  for  industrial  evils 
might  gain  the  right  to  put  the  names  of  such  women 
as  Jane  Addams  and  Lillian  Wald  in  a  proscribed  list 
of  radicals,  but  such  lists,  as  the  Secretary  of  War  in 
the  very  administration  which  carried  on  the  war  recog- 
nized, became  thereby  rolls  of  honor  in  which  any  man 
might  well  aspire  to  deserve  to  have  his  name  inscribed. 

INSTITUTIONAL   CHURCHES 

Institutional  churches  give  the  opportunity  to  ex- 
plore social  needs  under  the  direct  inspiratiott  of  reli- 
gion, and  to  bring  the  religious  point  of  view  to  bear 
on  particular  needs,  as  for  fresh  air  outings,  clubs, 
relief  employment,  or  whatever  kind  of  social  work 
may  be  selected.  They  are  sometimes  a  specialized  kind 
of  settlement.  They  do  not  necessarily  represent  the 
ideal,  or  at  any  rate  the  only  ideal  relation  between 
religion  and  social  work,  though  they  are  an  excel- 
lent means  of  producing  evidence  as  to  what  that  rela- 
tion should  be.  The  church  has  its  wholly  distinctive 
function  in  relation  to  social  work,  in  the  inspiration, 
the  moral  incentive,  which  it  gives.  Whatever  its 
members  do  in  the  non-sectarian  social  agencies  or  in 
their  capacity  as  citizens  should  be  regarded  as  the 
discharge  of  obligations,  the  performance  of  duties, 
the  realization  of  privileges  sanctioned  by  religion  and 
enforced  by  the  teaching  of   the  churches.      Institu- 


232  Social  Work 

tional  activities — educational,  hygienic,  charitable,  or 
whatever  they  may  be — are  justified,  provided  of 
course  they  are  well  done,  if  they  illustrate  and  re- 
enforce  such  teaching  of  the  social  obligations  in  gen- 
eral. If  they  distort  or  confuse  such  obligations  they 
may  become  an  actual  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to 
the  performance  of  the  imperative  task  of  organized 
religion  in  its  entirety. 

FOUNDATIONS 

Philanthropic  foundations,  like  those  established  by 
the  Carnegies,  the  Rockefellers,  the  Sages,  the  Hark- 
nesses,  and  the  Hartleys,  and  the  community  founda- 
tions like  the  Boston  Permanent  Charity,  the  Cleve- 
land Foundation,  and  the  Chicago  Community  Trust, 
represent  a  new  and  carefully  devised  plan  to  devote 
large  wealth,  either  during  the  life-time  of  the  giver 
or  after  his  death  or  both,  to  such  purposes  as  are  from 
time  to  time  regarded  by  carefully  selected  trustees  as 
the  most  important  and  most  promising  of  beneficial  re- 
sults. They  differ  from  the  pious  foundations  of  an 
earlier  day  in  covering  a  far  wider  range  of  interests, 
and  in  leaving  the  trustees  a  much  freer  hand  both  in 
the  choice  of  specific  purposes  and  as  to  the  means  by 
which  they  are  to  be  promoted. 

W^ELFARE   DEPARTMENTS 

Public  welfare  or  social  welfare  departments  may  be 
created  in  the  municipal,  county,  state,  or  federal  gov- 


Improvcmevit  uf  Conditions:  II  233 

crnment.  A  proposed  federal  department  of  public 
welfare  contemplates  the  consolidation  of  the  various 
existing  and  proposed  welfare  activities,  including  edu- 
cation, health,  and  compensation  to  disabled  soldiers 
and  sailors.  State  boards  of  charities  have  been  re- 
christened  boards  of  public  welfare,  and  additional 
functions  assigned  to  them.  Local  departments  of  pub- 
lic charities  have  been  similarly  re-named,  with  or  with- 
out new  duties.  The  idea  represented,  however,  by  this 
new  nomenclature  is  that  the  government  in  the  several 
jurisdictions  has  responsibility  for  more  things,  has 
more  means  at  its  disposal  for  attending  to  them,  and 
has  fewer  arbitrary  limitations  on  its  powers,  than  was 
formerly  assumed.  The  Department  of  Public  Welfare 
is  expected  to  study  the  problems  of  crime,  poverty,  ill 
health,  to  prevent  as  well  as  to  relieve  human  misery, 
to  co-ordinate  its  own  activities  with  those  of  voluntary 
agencies,  to  have  a  rational  theory  of  social  welfare 
and  to  act  upon  it. 

RECREATION 

Plav  is  natural  and  indispensable  to  human  beings, 
like  sleep  and  food.  Recreation  is  the  supplement  to 
work  in  adolescents  and  adults,  as  play  is  the  royal 
means  to  securing  muscular  development  and  nervous 
co-ordination  in  children.  Fish  in  the  sea,  monkeys 
in  the  branches,  lambs  in  the  fields,  birds  in  the  air, 
have  room  for  play  and  seem  to  make  the  most  of  it. 
Unfortunately  human  beings,  taking  their  work  and 


234  Social  Work 

their  personal  security  too  seriously,  have  greatly  cir- 
cumscribed the  play  of  their  children  and  their  own 
opportunities  for  physical  recreation.  We  have  there- 
fore in  social  work  a  playground  movement,  as  we 
have  housing  and  temperance  movements.  This  is  not 
because  the  play  instinct  or  the  recreational  instinct 
has  failed,  but  because  of  two  rather  accidental  devel- 
opments of  modern  civilization :  the  congested  tene- 
ment life  of  cities,  permitting  no  such  spontaneity  of 
movement  as  we  see  in  field,  forest,  sea,  and  air;  and 
the  isolated  farm,  where  there  is  indeed  room,  but 
there  is  lacking  the  other  incentive — association  with 
fellows  of  the  same  age  and  proclivities.  The  policy  of 
providing  playgrounds — on  roofs,  if  necessary;  by  shut- 
ting off  traffic  from  certain  streets,  if  necessary;  by 
sacrificing  grass  in  public  parks,  if  necessary;  by  con- 
demning small  tracts  in  congested  districts,  if  necessary, 
even  at  large  expense,  the  necessity  arising  from  earlier 
neglect — has  been  the  fundamental  aim  of  this  move- 
ment. 

Apparatus  and  play  directors  are  essential  to  the 
success  of  city  playgrounds.  From  the  simplest  equip- 
ment, like  swings,  slides,  and  wading  pools,  up  to  the 
municipal  golf  course  and  tennis  courts  and  boulevards 
for  automobiles,  there  is  no  break  in  principle.  Royal 
parks  of  an  earlier  day  became  the  public  property  of 
nation  or  city,  and  so  familiarized  us  with  the  idea 
of  recreation  for  the  leisure  of  the  well-to-do.  The 
playground  movement   seeks  to   make   sure  of  ample 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  ^  235 

recreational  facilities  for  those  who  are  too  young  to 
walk  long  distances  and  who  do  not  go  out  for  their 
airing  in  automobiles.  The  small  playground  in  a 
neighboring  block  is  only  the  first,  however,  of  a  series, 
which  includes  ball  grounds  in  large  parks,  skating 
ponds,  and  eventually  all  of  the  free  out-doors.  The 
use  of  leisure  time  for  recreational  purposes  extends  to 
libraries,  museums,  theatres,  motion  pictures,  lectures, 
music,  travel.  Society  is  as  much  concerned  that  leisure 
time  shall  be  used  profitably  for  living  in  freedom  as 
that  working  time  shall  be  used  profitably  for  living  at 
work.  Character  takes  form  under  relaxation  quite 
as  much  as  under  the  strain  and  stress  of  the  day's 
occupation;  The  social  organization  of  the  means  of 
recreation — whether  it  is  to  be  commercial,  philan- 
thropic, or  civic — leads  to  the  broader  program  of 
community  organization,  and  it  is  significant  that  the 
voluntary  national  society  which  before  the  World 
War  was  called  the  Playground  Association  of  Amer- 
ica, played  a  large  part  in  the  recreational  organization 
of  the  war  camp  communities  in  the  interests  of  the 
men  in  service  and  of  those  who  were  engaged  in  the 
production  of  munitions,  and  that  since  the  war  it  has 
occupied  itself  with  community  service,  giving  special 
attention  to  leisure  time  activities. 

The  problem  of  safeguarding  public  morals  in  dance 
halls  and  other  places  of  amusement  has  led  to  the 
demand  for  their  licensing  and  public  regulation;  and 
even  for  the  official  censorship  of  motion  picture  films. 


236  Social  Work 

Sharp  opposition  to  this  arises  not  only  from  pro- 
ducers, but  from  Hberal  opponents  of  state  regulation. 
The  step  from  censorship  of  motion  pictures  to  that 
of  the  press  and  public  platform  is  not  a  long  one. 
Indeed,  it  is  alleged  that  official  censors  have  already, 
in  a  time  of  sharp  industrial  disputes,  objected  to  the 
showing  of  the  homes  of  strikers,  made  for  no  more 
"immoral"  purpose  than  to  show  the  low  standards  of 
living  which  their  wages  allowed.  The  laws  against 
indecency,  if  actively  enforced,  would  probably  be  a 
safer  reliance  than  a  censorship,  against  the  dangers 
to  which  a  democracy  should  always  remain  sensitive. 
The  need  for  promoting  healthful  recreation  is  a 
part  of  the  problem  of  country  life  as  well  as  of  the 
urban  population.  Juvenile  delinquency  and  ill  health 
will  be  lessened  by  the  development  of  sports  and  of 
rational  occupations  for  leisure  time.  The  educa- 
tional, religious,  and  other  social  forces  of  the  nation 
may  well  give  additional  attention  to  the  encourage- 
ment of  play  and  recreation. 

RACIAL  AND  SOCIAL  GROUPS 

Social  work  may  occupy  itself  with  special  racial  or 
social  groups,  such  as  Indians,  Negroes,  Jews,  or  Moun- 
tain whites,  instead  of  with  those  who  suffer  from  a 
particular  disease  or  misfortune  or  who  live  in  a  par- 
ticular neighborhood.  This  distinction,  however,  is 
more  nominal  than  real.  The  reason  for  giving  atten- 
tion to  the  needs  of  a  particular  group  of  this  kind 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  2Z7 

will  usually  be  because  in  fact  they  suffer  from  common 
disadvantages,  due  as  a  rule  to  some  far  reaching 
change  which  has  made  necessary  a  new  adjustment. 
The  Jew  does  not,  for  example,  present  a  problem  of 
social  work  as  such,  but  as  newly  arrived  immigrants, 
as  swer,:.ed  garment  workers,  or  as  common  victims 
of  some  similar  condition  which  affects  a  sufficiently 
large  number  to  make  it  convenient  or  advantageous 
to  organize  relief  for  them,  vj^egroes  need  special 
attention — schools,  inter-racial  committees,  etc. — not 
because  their  ultimate  needs  are  different  from  those 
of  others,  but  because  of  the  slavery  of  the  past,  the 
prejudices  which  deny  them  equal  educational  facilities, 
even-handed  justice  in  the  courts  and  in  industry,  and 
on  their  own  part  at  times  an  ignorance,  superstition, 
and  lack  of  those  particular  qualifications  which  are 
especially  prized  in  advanced  industrial  communities 
and  which  it  may  require  some  generations  to  over- 
come. 

WORKING    CONDITIONS 

The  re-planning  of  towns  and  the  re-organization  of 
industry  so  as  to  eliminate  waste  and  satisfy  the  creative 
instincts  of  workers  are  the  two  great  tasks  of  social 
organization.  They  far  transcend  the  scope  of  social 
work,  as  the  latter  is  presented  in  tliis  volume;  but 
social  work  is  an  integral  part  of  social  organization, 
and  its  own  part  will  be  the  more  adequately  performed 


238  Social  Work 

if  it  does  not  fail  to  discern  the  larger  tasks  with  which 
our  generation  must  concern  itself. 

The  re-organization  of  industry  is  mainly  the  task  of 
engineers,  financiers,  and  industrial  workers.  In  the 
child  labor  committees,  however,  consumers'  leagues, 
associations  for  labor  legislation,  women's  trade  union 
leagues,  and  similar  organizations,  there  are  types  of 
social  work  the  ultimate  results  of  which  may  be  far 
reaching  for  the  basic  reconstruction  of  industry.  Their 
immediate  aim  is  specific,  and  directed,  like  all  social 
work,  at  evils  which  can  be  described,  circumscribed, 
and  to  some  extent  corrected  independently  of  any 
larger  plan  of  social  reconstruction. 

CHILD    LABOR 

Children  are  at  work  who  should  be  in  school  or  at 
play :  therefore  let  us  outlaw  their  employment  and  ^ 
keep  them  in  school.  The  evidence  for  this  legislation  '^ 
is  partly  physiological,  partly  educational,  partly  social. 
This  evidence  is  all  in  and  the  case  has  long  since  been 
presented.  There  are  no  longer  advocates  of  child 
labor.  There  are  merely  obstructionists  and  those  who 
have  not  considered  the  evidence.  There  are  children 
at  work  in  the  cotton  fields,  sugar  beet  fields,  and 
other  agricultural  occupations.  There  are  unsettled 
questions  about  the  employment  of  adolescents  from 
fourteen  to  eighteen.  The  constitutionality  of  federal 
legislation  has  still  to  be  decided.  But  the  central  task 
for  which  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  was 


Iijiprovcnicnt  of  Conditions:  II  239 

created  in  190-1 — the  conversion  of  the  pubHc  opinion 
of  the  nation  to  the  idea  that  children  under  fourteen 
should  not  be  gainfully  employed,  may  fairly  be  said 
to  have  been  accomplished.  Children  under  fourteen 
are  still  employed,  but  it  is  known  to  be  an  anachronism 
and  one  which  can  probably  be  completely  overcome 
only  by  the  improvement  of  elementary  education  and 
attention  to  child  welfare  in  general. 

Both  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  and  the 
Children's  Bureau  Conference  of  1919  have  formulated 
minimum  standards  for  children  entering  employment. 
They  agree  on  the  main  essentials,  but  the  Child  Labor 
Committee,  as  a  continuing  expert  and  propagandist 
agency  in  this  particular  field,  has  naturally  formulated 
its  standards  in  more  detail  and  on  a  somewhat  higher 
level.  The  Children's  Bureau  standards  call  for  an 
age  minimum  of  sixteen  in  a.nj  occupation,  except  that 
"cHTldferi  T3et\veen  fourteen  and  sixteen  may  be  em- 
ployedln  agriculture  and  domestic  service  during  vaca- 
tion periods^,  until  schools  are  continuous  throughout 
the  year.'J^  '^  Higher  limits  in  certain  occupations,  an 
educational  minimum,  and  a  physical  minimum,  are 
also  demanded ;  and  maximum  hours  and  a  minimum 
wage.  The  Child  Welfare  Standards  call  for  a  central 
agency  to  deal  with  all  juvenile  employment  problems. 
Both  the  Child  Labor  Committee  and  the  Child  Welfare 
Conferences  attach  great  importance  to  the  administra- 
tion of  the  school  attendance,  factory  inspection,  and 
child  labor  laws,  the  co-ordination  of  the  official  agen- 


.\ 


/- 


240  Social  Work 

cies  responsible  for  enforcing  them.  The  conditions 
under  which  employment  certificates  shall  be  issued  are 
carefully  prescribed. 

MINIMUM    WAGE   LAWS 

Minimum  wage  laws,  prohibition  of  the  employment 
of  women  at  night  and  in  physiologically  injurious 
processes,  the  legal  limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor  by 
women  in  stores  and  factories,  and  other  restrictions 
in  the  interests  of  health  and  family  welfare,  have  been 
brought  about  largely  by  the  consumers'  leagues, 
working  with  other  civic  bodies,  and  by  trade  unions. 
Between  1912  and  1920  minimum  wage  legislation  was 
enacted  in  thirteen  states  and  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. A  standard  minimum  wage  bill,  based  on  the 
most  effective  existing  statutes,  is  published  by  the 
National  Consumers'  League. 

STANDARDS  FOR  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 

In  December,  1918,  the  United  States  Department 
of  Labor  issued  a  statement  of  standards  governing  the 
employment  of  women  in  industry,  calling  upon  the 
industries  of  the  country  to  co-operate  with  state  and 
federal  agencies  to  maintain  them  "as  a  vital  part  of 
the  reconstruction  program  of  the  nation."  Under 
these  standards  no  woman  would  be  employed  or  per- 
mitted to  work  more  than  eight  hours  in  any  one  day 
or  forty-eight  hours  in  any  one  week;  every  woman 
worker  would  have  one  day  of  rest  in  every  seven; 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  241 

three-quarters  of  an  hour  would  be  allowed  for  a 
meal ;  and  no  woman  would  be  employed  between  10  :00 
P.M.  and  6:00  A.M.  Women  doing  the  same  work 
as  men  would  receive  the  same  wages;  the  minimum 
wage  rate  would  cover  the  cost  of  living  for  dependents, 
and  no'  merely  for  the  individual;  wages  would  be 
established  on  the  basis  of  occupation,  not  on  the 
basis  of  sex.  Women  would  not  be  employed  in  occu- 
pations involving  the  use  of  poisons  which  are  more 
injurious  to  women  than  to  men,  such  as  certain 
processes  in  the  lead  industries.  No  work  would  be 
given  out  to  be  done  at  home.  Many  other  less  im- 
portant matters  are  covered  in  these  standards,  and 
it  is  held  that  workers  should  share  with  the  manage- 
ment the  responsibility  for  their  enforcement. 

COMPENSATION    STANDARDS 

The  enactment  of  compensation  laws  in  substitution 
for  the  discredited  employers'  liability  laws  as  a  means 
of  insuring  to  workers  prompt  and  reasonable  com- 
pensation for  industrial  injuries,  and  the  current  agita- 
tion for  health  insurance,  are  to  be  credited  mainly  to 
the  American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation.  Stan- 
dards for  compensation  laws  have  been  prepared  by  the 
Association.  This  body  is  affiliated  with  an  inter- 
national association,  the  main  object  of  which  has  been 
to  standardize  protective  labor  laws.  This  function 
has  now  been  assumed  to  some  extent  by  the  more 
official   International  Labor  Conference,   with  a  per- 


242  Social  Work 

manent  office  at  Geneva,  created  under  the  Treaty  of 
\"ersailles. 

INDUSTRY    AND    SOCIAL    WORK 

The  improvement  of  working  conditions  is  naturally 
in  the  first  instance  the  responsibility  of  industry  itself. 
Some  natural  resentment  is  felt  by  employers  w^hen 
voluntary  associations  like  those  named  begin,  as  they 
say,  to  interfere  with  their  business.  Labor  unions 
also  show  a  certain  impatience  when  "reformers"  take 
it  upon  themselves  to  discover  what  labor  needs,  rather 
than  accepting  without  question  the  official  pronounce- 
ments of  organized  labor  on  the  subject.  Social  work 
has  nevertheless  justified  its  intervention.  Its  move- 
ments have  been  largely  on  behalf  of  workers  as  yet, 
unorganized  and  for  the  removal  of  conditions  which 
are  demonstrably  and  flagrantly  contrary  to  the 
[)ublic  interest.  They  are  harmful  to  industry,  however 
profitable  in  the  short  run  to  individual  employers. 
Nothing  is  more  essential  to  industry  than  healthy, 
vigorous  and  willing  workers.  The  employment  of 
children,  over-work  by  women,  underpaid,  sweated 
labor,  night  work  by  women  or  by  children,  industrial 
accidents  for  which  the  worker  and  his  family  have 
no  compensation,  and  industrial  disease,  are  inimical 
to  industry,  if  by  industry  we  mean  the  organization 
of  society  to  produce  the  goods  needed  by  society,  and 
not  merely  a  means  of  making  profits  for  individuals. 
Workers  and  organizers  of  industry  should  therefore 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  243 

welcome  well-conceived  programs  of  social  work  which 
will  help  to  create  a  sound  public  opinion  on  these  sub- 
jects, to  secure  needed  laws  and  their  enforcement,  and 
to  facilitate  the  gradual  transformation  of  the  whole 
industri.r;  system  to  one  in  which  the  present  frightful 
amount  of  waste  is  much  reduced,  in  which  the  man- 
agers of  industry  are  freed  from  their  subserviency  to 
financial  profit-making  interests,  in  which  Vv-orkers  have 
a  voice  in  all  matters  which  concern  them,  including 
the  means  of  increasing  productivity,  in  which  demo- 
cratic operation  may  have  a  chance  to  demonstrate 
whether  it  is,  as  its  advocates  claim,  more  likely  to  be 
efficient  than  the  autocracy  wdiich  still  prevails. 

Social  workers  have  a  reciprocal  obligation  to  under- 
stand the  point  of  view  of  industrial  financiers,  en- 
gineers, and  workers,  and  the  natural  limitations  of 
their  own  reforms.  They  have  more  than  the  ordinary 
occasion  to  recognize  the  larger  forces  which  are  work- 
ing with  and  against  them.  They  go  into  politics,  and 
when  they  do  they  encounter  and  must  reckon  with 
the  hidden  political  influences.  They  go  against  judicial 
assumptions  and  precedents,  and  have  to  produce  social 
evidence  that  the  precedents  are  no  longer  binding,  the 
assumptions  contrary  to  the  facts.  They  find  corrupt 
labor  leaders  and  employers  only  too  ready  to  buy 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  programs  which  the  workers 
themselves  have  originated,  or  public  officials,  or  em- 
ployers, may  be  better  than  any  invented  by  outside 
reformers.    There  is  no  presumption  against  a  program 


244  .  Social  Work 

because  it  comes  from  the  Inside  of  industry.  All  this 
the  national  agencies  which  have  especially  occupied 
themselves  with  the  improvement  of  industrial  condi- 
tions fully  understand,  and  it  is  emphasized  here  not 
in  criticism  of  their  attitude,  but  only  as  a  caution  to 
those  who  enter  this  most  inviting  and  difficult  of  all 
kinds  of  social  work. 

OTHER    CAUSES   AND    PROBLEMS 

The  improvement  of  living  and  working  conditions 
is  a  department  of  social  work  which  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  is  unlimited  and  illimitable.  New  plans  are 
constantly  being  made  and  existing  agencies  are  fluid, 
subject  to  currents  of  public  opinion,  to  influences 
springing  from  scientific  discovery  or  political  change 
or  mere  fashions  of  thought.  The  war  checked  some 
very  praiseworthy  movements — as  for  example  the 
anti-nicotine,  especially  the  anti-cigarette  agitation — 
and  encouraged  others,  as  for  example  the  very  neces- 
sary travellers'  aid  service  at  terminal  railway  stations, 
etc.  The  legal-aid  movement  has  had  a  noteworthy 
impulse  from  the  publication  of  the  Carnegie  Corpora- 
tion's monograph  on  Justice  to  the  Poor.  The  mental- 
hygiene  movement,  the  need  for  which  has  been  em- 
phasized by  the  condition  of  many  ex-service  men,  has 
already  produced  some  very  useful  and  informing  "lit- 
erature." There  are  many  broad  movements,  as  yet  not 
fully  crystallized,  like  those  for  the  prevention  of  the 
congestion  of  population,  or,  affirmatively  expressed, 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  245 

for  the  better  planning  of  towns  and  cities ;  for  the  im- 
provement of  country  life;  for  the  control  of  immigra- 
tion and  the  assimilation  of  immigrants ;  for  community 
organization;  for  constitutional  government  in  indus- 
try; and  for  disarmament. 

Whether  such  "causes"  and  problems  as  these  belong 
in  social  work  depends  on  the  breadth  and  definiteness 
which  are  to  be  given  to  it.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  the  present  text-book,  the  deliberate  and  conscious 
promotion  of  any  specific  solution  of  the  recognized 
problems,  whether  by  legislation,  by  public  education, 
or  by  influencing  the  policies  of  those  involved,  would 
be  fairly  included.  The  participation  of  investors, 
workers,  or  citizens  from  the  ordinary  economic  or 
political  motives  would  not.  Social  work,  in  other 
words,  would  have  a  part  to  play,  but  not  the  principal 
responsibility,  in  any  one  of  these  or  similar  move- 
ments. 

COMMON  FEATURES  OF  THE  EDUCATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

Those  forms  of  social  work  which  deal  with  general 
conditions  have  much  in  common  with  the  agencies 
which  help  individuals  and  which  do  preventive  work 
through  their  contact  with  individuals;  but  they  have 
methods  of  their  own.  The  investigation  of  social 
problems  extends  to  their  historical  antecedents;  their 
causes  in  current  methods  of  wealth  production,  educa- 
tional systems,  or  wherever  they  may  lie ;  their  remedies 
in  coercive  or  voluntary  social  action ;  the  theories,  con- 


246  Social  Work 

troversies,  social  cleavages  to  which  they  may  have 
given  rise.  The  universities  have  to  some  extent 
organized  or  encouraged  the  scientific  study  of  social 
problems,  especially  in  their  graduate  schools  of  politi- 
cal science,  economics,  philosophy,  or  education.  The 
foundations  have  used  their  resources  in  part  in  social 
research.  /  The  specialized  agencies  have  studied  prob- 
lems like  mose  of  child  labor,  women  in  industry,  in- 
dustrial accidents,  fatigue,  tuberculosis,  infant  mor- 
tality, housing,  town  planning,  congestion,  remedial 
loans,  immigration,  recreation,  or  whatever  else  may 
have  been  their  particular  interest,  and  there  has  been 
some,  though  far  too  little,  interchange  of  ideas  and 
experiences  among  universities,  foundations,  and  social 
agencies  thus  engaged  in  similar  inquiries,  which  should 
yield  comparable  and  mutually  complementary  results. 
The  same  problems  may  be  studied  by  law-makers  on 
their  own  account,  by  judges  called  upon  to  interpret 
or  pass  upon  the  constitutionality  of  new  laws,  or  by 
journalists  and  independent  investigators  who  give 
the  public  the  benefit  of  their  studies  through  books, 
magazines,  or  newspapers.  The  patient  and  disinter- 
ested investigator  may  be  found  in  many  places,  and 
scientific  research  such  as  the  universities  do  for  the 
purpose  of  training  and  developing  their  students  is 
no  different  in  spirit  or  in  method  from  that  which 
the  social  agency,  the  law-maker,  or  the  journalist 
practices  in  order  to  secure  a  sound  foundation 
for    his    practical    program.      The    natural    result    of 


Improvement  of  Conditions:  II  247 

this  research  is  the  creation  of  a  technical  or  special 
literature — periodicals,  reports,  books,  pamphlets, 
proceedings  of  conferences,  etc,  and  material  to  be 
presented  in  public  addresses,  through  the  press,  in 
sermons,  legislative  debates,  or  wherever  it  can  appro- 
priately be  used. 

A  third  common  feature  of  the  organized  movements 
for  the  improving  of  conditions  is  a  national  and  often 
also  many  state  or  local  headquarters,  which  usually 
serve  both  as  executive  offices  for  the  direction  of  field 
work  and  as  centers  of  information  to  the  public. 
These  agencies  frequently  have  a  very  large  corres- 
pondence, numerous  callers,  frequent  inquiries  from 
the  press,  from  authors,  lawmakers,  reference  libra- 
rians, college  and  high  school  students  who  are  debating 
or  writing  essays  on  the  subject.  The  budget  of  any 
national  social  agency  is  certain  to  contain  an  item  to 
cover  a  liberal  response  to  all  such  inquiries.  They 
furnish  one  of  the  best  methods  of  propaganda.  To 
write  careful  letters  in  order  to  give  the  facts  to  one 
already  interested  enough  to  ask  for  them,  whatever 
his  motive,  is  better  than  to  send  many  times  the 
same  number  of  letters  to  those  who  may  have  no  inter- 
est in  them.  For  lack  of  such  a  recognized  and  properly 
equipped  headquarters  some  of  the  best  of  causes  have 
languished.  Better  sifted  and  more  authoritative  infor- 
mation, adapted  to  the  local  needs  of  the  community 
from  which  an  inquiry  comes,  can  better  be  supplied 
from   such  an  office   and   at  less  expense  than   from 


248  Social  Work 

the  several  local  sources  which  would  otherwise  have 
to  be  approached.  There  is  no  such  national  source 
of  information,  for  example,  in  regard  to  remedial 
loans  or  in  regard  to  financial  federations.  In  some 
instances — e.g.,  charity  organization  and  the  prevention 
of  tuberculosis — the  movement  has  first  spread  from 
one  locality  to  another,  perhaps  across  the  ocean,  and 
later  a  national  office  of  some  kind  has  been  established, 
either  through  federation  or  through  independent  asso- 
ciation of  those  already  interested.  In  other  instances 
— e.  g.,  the  Red  Cross  and  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association — the  movement  has  been  organized  out- 
ward from  a  center,  or  downward  from  a  national 
headquarters  to  the  states  and  localities. 

Research,  publication,  central  headquarters  and  stafiF, 
are  obvious  and  almost  indispensable  features  of  any 
social  movement.  The  enlistment  of  appropriate  co- 
operating agencies,  such  as  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the 
civic  bodies,  the  trade  unions,  the  government,  is  an 
equally  obvious  and  universal  procedure,  although  there 
will  naturally  be  some  variations  in  the  list  of  agencies, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  facts  to  be  made  public 
or  the  remedial  action  to  be  secured.  It  is  astonishing 
what  a  large  number  of  unsuspected  allies  can  be  dis- 
covered in  connection  with  any  sincere  attempt  to  make 
life  easier  and  happier,  to  put  an  end  to  any  cause  of 
unnecessary  suffering  or  hardship. 


CHAPTER   XV 
CO-ORDINATION  AND  SUPERVISION 


Nothing  would  seem  to  be  more  obvious  than  that 
charitable  activities  will  be  more  effective  for  their 
purpose  if  they  are  co-ordinated  ;*  that  there  is  waste 
in  overlapping  and  in  unrelated  efforts  to  relieve  dis- 
tress or  combat  disease  or  prevent  crime.  The  tragedy 
of  competing,  isolated,  unorganized  philanthropy  has 
been  apparent  from  earliest  times  to  discriminating  ob- 
servers. Individual  help  to  individuals  in  trouble  is 
better  than  indifference,  but  it  is  not  sufficient.  Two 
or  several  persons  may  help  one  unnecessarily  while 
another  misses  the  help  which  he  desperately  needs. 
The  two  or  several  may  be  working  at  cross  purposes 
and  so  fail  to  be  of  any  real  assistance  even  to  the  one 
whose  needs  have  attracted  attention.  One  person  may 
have  found  out  how  to  help,  and  others  may  continue 
to  blunder.  The  helping  ability  may  be  distributed  geo- 
graphically or  seasonally  very  differently  from  the  need 
to  be  relieved.  Pretty  much  all  the  people  who  are  ready 
to  help  may  be  wholly  ignorant  of  and  indifferent  to 
the  underlying  conditions  in  human  society  which  are 
responsible  for  the  misery  which  excites  their  sympathy. 

249 


250  Social  Work 


THE  SOCIAL  SERVICE  EXCHANGE 

The  simplest  and  perliaps  the  best  means  of  starting 
an  improvement  in  this  disparate,  uninformed,  un- 
organized situation,  when  it  exists,  is  to  organize  what 
is  known  as  a  social  service  exchange.  This  is  the 
best  first  step  because  it  is  so  simple,  and  so  completely- 
free  from  interference  with  any  course  which  the 
individual  or  agency  that  uses  it  may  wish  to  take. 
The  exchange  is  essentially  a  card  index  of  persons  or 
families  who  receive  or  ask  for  any  kind  of  social 
service.  It  is  impersonal  and  harmless.  By  consulting 
the  exchange — through  a  personal  call,  telephone,  or 
mail — one  finds  out  whether  the  family  which  he  in- 
tends to  help  is  known  to  others,  and  if  so  to  what 
others.  He  then  consults  these  others  or  not  as  he 
likes.  These  others,  if  there  have  been  any,  are  in 
turn  informed  of  the  new  inquiry,  and  if  they  like  they 
may  consult  the  one  Avho  has  made  the  inquiry,  or  they 
may  consult  the  family,  to  find  out  why  the  new  inquiry 
is  made.  No  confidential  information  is  recorded  in 
the  card  index,  no  statement  as  to  what  has  been  found 
out  or  what  has  been  done  by  this  or  that  individual 
or  agency.  Such  information  is  contained  in  the  con- 
fidential case  records  of  the  agencies,  and  is  imparted 
in  their  discretion  to  such  as  have  a  legitimate  interest 
in  it;  but  the  social  service  exchange  does  not  have 
case  records.  It  is,  like  a  telephone  exchange,  merely 
a  convenience   for  making  connection  between  those 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  251 

who  ask  for  it  or  are  receptive.  This  modest  role 
enables  the  exchange  to  be  used  by  many  who  would 
very  properly  be  averse  to  putting  their  information 
at  the  disposal  even  of  other  social  agencies.  It  is  a 
safeguard  against  foolish,  isolated,  unco-ordinated  ac- 
tion for  those  who  are  merely  far  enough  along  to 
prefer  not  to  act  foolishly  when  they  can  just  as  well 
be  sensible.  The  social  service  exchange  involves  some 
expense  for  printing,  equipment,  and  service,  and  this 
can  be  shared  by  those  who  use  it  or  met  either  by  a 
federation  of  social  agencies,  if  one  exists,  or  by  a 
department  of  public  welfare,  or  by  some  single  agency, 
if  there  is  one  which  can  afford  it  and  which  has  the 
confidence  of  others,  so  that  they  will  use  it. 

SOCIETIES  FOR  ORGANIZING  CHARITY 

An  entirely  different  method  of  preventing  the  waste 
and  harmful  results  of  unco-ordinated  individual  activi- 
ties is  to  establish  an  association  which  all  may  join, 
or  an  official  system  in  which  all,  or  a  large  part  of  those 
who  are  qualified,  may  participate.  The  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  founded  in 
New  York  City  by  Robert  M.  Hartley  in  1841,  was  an 
attempt  to  move  in  the  first  of  these  directions.  The 
Elberfeld  system,  widely  adopted  in  Germany,  is  an 
instance  of  the  second.  While  each  of  these  plans  has 
merit,  neither  became  inclusive  of  all  social  work. 
Mr,  Hartley's  hope  that  the  smaller  societies  would 
be  absorbed  in  his  new  association  was  not  realized,  and 


252  Social  Work 

after  forty  years  another  attempt  at  organizing  the 
charity  of  the  city  on  a  different  plan  was  initiated. 
The  charity  organization  society,  impressed  by  the 
importance  of  a  thorough  investigation  of  each  case 
of  distress,  adequate  and  appropriate  rehef  on  a  def- 
inite plan,  co-operation  among  all  who  have  a  respon- 
sibility or  an  interest  in  the  premises,  development  of 
personal  sources  of  relief  and  of  the  self-supporting 
capacity  to  the  utmost  reasonable  extent,  created  in  its 
district  committee  or  case  conference  an  appropriate 
mechanism  by  which  citizens  of  good  will  could  actually 
co-operate  in  carrying  out  these  ideas. 

Previously  collected  relief  funds  were  deprecated 
in  the  charity  organization  movement,  and  the  organ- 
ization of  relief  on  the  case  plan  preferred.  The  societ- 
ies did  not  confine  themselves  to  the  investigation  and 
organization  of  relief  in  individual  cases  of  distress, 
but  promoted  the  co-ordination  of  charity  through 
public  meetings,  leaflets,  periodicals,  and  otherwise ; 
stimulated  social  and  sanitary  reforms;  initiated  under 
their  own  auspices  or  as  independent  enterprises  what- 
ever forms  of  social  work  they  found  to  be  desirable 
and  not  already  under  way — such  as  industrial  employ- 
ment, municipal  lodging  houses,  remedial  loan  societies, 
fresh  air  work. 

These  societies  were  sometimes  called  Associated 
or  United  Charities,  although  they  were  not  often  a 
federation.  Such  names,  like  charity  organization 
society,  suggested  the  aim  rather  than  described  the 


Co-ordinatiun  and  Supervision  253 

actual  constitution  of  the  society.  The  aim  has  always 
been  the  close  association  of  those  who  are  interested  in 
helping  the  poor  in  accordance  with  tested  and  approved 
methods,  the  organization  of  charitable  effort  in  order 
to  make  it  more  effective  and  less  wasteful.  Of  recent 
years  some  of  these  societies  have  changed  their  names, 
and  new  societies  having  the  same  ends  in  view  have 
taken  different  names  from  those  of  the  earlier  societ- 
ies. Although  there  is  no  more  uniformity  in  the  new 
names  than  in  the  old,  they  tend  to  agree  in  emphas- 
izing in  their  titles  family  welfare  or  social  service 
rather  than  the  association  of  charities  or  the  organiza- 
tion of  charity.  The  national  federation  which  has 
been  established  to  promote  the  movement  and  to  stand- 
ardize the  work  of  the  societies  is  known  as  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  Organizing  Family  Social  Work. 
As  this  Association  is  a  mutual  body,  supported  mainly 
by  contributions  or  assessments  of  its  members  and 
by  appropriations  from  one  of  the  foundations,  it  has 
no  doubt  a  right  to  determine  its  own  qualifications 
for  membership.  By  not  including  Catholic  or 
Jewish  agencies  engaged  in  "family  social  work"  it 
becomes  in  a  sense  itself  sectarian,  even  though  its 
constituent  societies  may  deal  to  some  extent  with 
Jewish  and  Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant  families. 
Its  earlier  policy  of  not  admitting  other  general  agencies 
for  relief  and  family  welfare  in  a  city  in  which  there 
is  a  "family  social  work  society"  made  a  distinction 
where  there  was  little  or  no  discernible  difference.    It  is 


254  Social  Work 

true  that  this  latter  question  would  arise  only  In  two  or 
three  places,  since  in  most  of  the  large  cities  which 
formerly  had  two  general  societies  of  this  kind  they 
have  united,  and  the  combined  society  has  been  regarded 
as  eligible,  and  in  New  York  City  both  the  Charity 
Organization  Society  and  the  Association  for  Improv- 
ing the  Condition  of  the  Poor — which  remain  apart  in 
spite  of  all  the  convincing  reasons  for  union — are  both 
members. 

The  American  Association  has  a  staff  of  field  secre- 
taries who  are  available  to  aid  interested  persons  to 
create  a  society  for  family  social  work  where  none 
exists,  or  to  improve  the  work  of  an  existing  society,  or 
to  survey  and  attempt  to  bring  order  out  of  unco- 
ordinated, unorganized,  or  w^astefully  and  improperly 
organized  communities. 

COMMUNITY  CONSCIENCE  AND  CIVIC  MEMORY 

One  function  which  charity  organization  societies 
share  with  several  other  voluntary  agencies  is  to  serve 
as  a  connecting  link  between  successive  municipal  ad- 
ministrations, a  permanent  depositary  of  facts  and  ex- 
periences, a  persistent  influence  for  continuity  in  de- 
velopment. In  American  town  and  cities,  with  their 
frequent  change  of  local  officials,  this  becomes  an 
exceedingly  important  function.  The  community  needs 
a  conscience  and  a  civic  memory,  and  the  machinery 
of  local  government  ignores  this  need.  It  may  be 
supplied  by  a  chamber  of  commerce  or  a  bureau  of  mun- 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  255 

icipal  research  or,  better  than  either,  by  such  a  dehbera- 
tive  council  as  Joseph  K.  Hart  suggests.*  In  particular 
departments  of  local  administration  this  function  of 
maintaining  advances  already  gained,  sustaining  public 
interest  in  essential  problems,  is  best  discharged,  in 
so  far  as  the  public  service  does  not  itself  provide 
for  it,  by  the  voluntary  agency  which  operates  in  the 
same  field:  a  public  education  association  supplement- 
ing the  public  school  system,  for  instance ;  or  a  prison 
association,  the  penal  system. 

The  agencies  for  social  work  in  families  have  a 
natural  relation  with  the  county  and  municipal  relief 
of  the  poor  in  their  homes.  These  relations  are  usually 
co-operative,  sometimes  competitive,  and  under  what 
is  known  as  the  Iowa  plan  they  have  taken  the  form 
of  an  actual  partnership:  i.  e.,  a  social  worker  is  en- 
gaged at  joint  expense — by  county  commissioners  to 
do  the  public  relief  work,  and  by  the  voluntary  society 
to  do  the  social  work  which  would  fall  to  it.  When 
the  total  amount  of  work  to  be  done  is  sufficient  to 
justify  the  employment  of  only  one  qualified  executive, 
with  a  modest  staff  and  office  equipment,  this  com- 
bination may  work  well.  The  principal  valid  objection 
to  it  is  one  which  arises  from  the  considerations  to 
which  we  have  just  referred.  The  voluntary  agency 
cannot  be  a  connecting  link,  an  independent  means  of 
carrying  over  progress  from  one  good  public  adminis- 


*  In    Community    Organ!::afion,    Qiapter   IX,   Developing   Com- 
munity Deliberation. 


256  Social  Work 

tration  to  another,  through  a  period  of  inefficiency  or 
reaction — a  civic  memory  and  a  civic  conscience — if  its 
own  fortunes  are  too  closely  bound  up  with  those  of 
the  official  administration.  When  both  voluntary  and 
official  bodies  are  alert,  efficient,  and  progressive,  the 
Iowa  Plan  works  admirably.  If  an  election  goes  badly, 
a  low-grade  politician  gets  into  office,  and  the  city  or 
county  can  no  longer  keep  the  pace  of  virtue  and 
intelligence  which  the  team-work  requires,  then  the 
yoke  with  unbelievers  may  be  a  grave  handicap,  and 
there  may  be  no  means  of  insuring  even  a  saving 
remnant  for  a  new  start  under  more  auspicious  skies. 

SURVEYS 

The  social  survey,  of  which  there  are  many  varieties, 
is  usually  directed  towards  the  making  of  a  program, 
the  better  co-ordination  of  agencies,  and  the  increase 
of  their  efficiency.  Its  immediate  method  is  to  put 
the  community  in  possession  of  facts  with  respect  to 
social  conditions  and  the  particular  services  under 
scrutiny,  in  order  that  a  program  of  development  may 
be  made.  It  may  be  a  survey  only  of  schools  or  of 
courts  or  of  health  services  or  of  charities  or  of 
housing  or  recreation.  It  may  be  a  community  survey, 
in  which  any  or  all  of  these  and  other  aspects  of  the 
life  of  the  community  are  included.  In  the  light  of 
the  facts  assembled  and  analyzed,  and  of  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  surveyors,  the  community  is  ex- 
pected to  reach  its  own  conclusions  as  to  what  reforms 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  2S7 

and  changes  are  necessary  and  what  policies  should 
be  continued.  To  make  known  and  to  conserve  the 
good  elements  of  strength  in  the  situation  is  no  less 
important  than  to  expose  and  correct  the  evils. 

COUNCILS   AND  FEDERATIONS  OF  SOCIAL   AGENCIES 

A  comparatively  recent  plan  for  promoting  order 
and  harmony  is  that  of  effecting  an  organization  among 
the  social  agencies  themselves,  either  a  financial  federa- 
tion or  a  council  of  social  agencies.  The  financial 
aspect  of  the  federations  is  discussed  in  a  later  chapter 
(page  292),  but  their  incidental  services  in  acquaint- 
ing the  agencies  with  one  another  and  in  co-ordinat- 
mg  the  social  work  of  the  community  perhaps  con- 
stitute their  greatest  value.  In  a  council  of  social 
agencies  the  directors,  staff,  and  members  of  each 
agency  may  through  their  representatives  come  into 
helpful  contact  with  those  of  other  agencies,  for  the 
discussion  of  their  common  problems  and  for  the 
making  of  a  common  program.  In  a  large  city  it 
may  be  necessary  to  create  several  departments :  one 
perhaps  for  health,  one  for  child  welfare,  one  for 
neighborhood  work,  and  so  on.  The  council  may,  as 
in  Boston,  follow  several  partial  unions  previously 
created  by  the  coming  together  of  agencies  working 
in  the  same  field.  There  may  be  certain  functions 
which  such  a  council  can  perform  for  its  members  in 
common,  such  as  central  purchase  of  supplies  or  the 
operation  of  a  social  service  exchange.     It  may  appoint 


258  Social  Work 

standing  committees  to  consider  legislation  in  which 
all  are  interested,  or  to  promote  public  education  on 
some  subject  of  common  concern.  The  council  may, 
as  in  Boston,  Chicago,  Saint  Louis,  and  Columbus, 
have  a  paid  executive  and  staff,  and  it  may,  among 
other  functions,  assume  that  of  a  financial  federation, 
as  in  Minneapolis  and  Cincinnati.  Through  such  a 
council  or  federation  the  community  may  be  made  in- 
creasingly conscious  of  its  common  responsibility  for 
discovering  and  meeting  in  a  rational  way,  with  a 
due  sense  of  relative  values,  whatever  needs  may  exist; 
for  developing  a  program  of  social  action. 

CURRENT     CONFUSION     AND    DUPLICATION 

Each  of  the  movements  for  the  improvement  of  liv- 
ing conditions  or  of  working  conditions,  whether  it 
begins  locally  or  nationally,  is  ultimately  represented 
by  a  national  agency.  It  may  be  a  federation,  or  merely 
a  central  educational  or  propagandist  committee.  Both 
the  local  agencies  and  the  national  bodies  tend  to 
broaden  their  scope  by  adding  to  their  original  func- 
tions now  one  and  now  another  activity  to  which  the 
directors  or  the  staff  find  themselves  attracted.  They 
display  another  tendency — to  use  names  of  a  pleasant 
sound  and  vast  implications,  which  rather  express  the 
aspirations  of  the  organization  than  describe  concretely 
what  it  undertakes  to  do.  These  tendencies  together 
result  in  blurring  outlines,  not  merely  in  appearance 
but  in  reality.     It  would  puzzle  even  the  average  well- 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  259 

informed  contemporary  worker  to  say  whether  a  given 
"pubHc  welfare  bureau"  or  "social  welfare  board"  is 
part  of  the  city  administration  or  a  private  society; 
to  know  that  a  "community  service  organization"  is 
affiliated  with  the  American  Association  for  Organiz- 
ing Family  Social  Work  and  not  with  Community 
Service  (Incorporated).  The  National  Tuberculosis 
Association  is  "headc|uarters  for  the  Modern  Health 
Crusade."  There  exist  contemporaneously  an  "Ameri- 
can Child  Hygiene  Association,"  a  "Child  Health  Or- 
ganization," and  a  "National  Child  Welfare  Associa- 
tion," while  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee, 
despite  a  name  which  seems  to  indicate  a  tangible  and 
limited  task,  advertises  its  scope  as  including  also 
"education;  delinquency;  health;  recreation;  children's 
codes."  A  list  has  been  compiled  of  sixty  national 
organizations  which  deal  with  one  aspect  or  another  of 
child  welfare,  and  the  number  concerned  with  health 
or  with  "Americanization"  must  be  nearly  as  formid- 
able. This  confusion  and  duplication  among  national 
organizations  is  reproduced  in  the  localities  to  which 
their  influence  extends. 

There  is,  in  short,  among  the  educational  social 
agencies,  a  situation  very  similar  to  that  which  existed 
among  the  relief  societies  in  the  70's  and  80's,  and 
which  led  to  the  movement  for  the  organization  of 
charity.  The  National  Information  Bureau  is  attempt- 
ing to  apply  to  national  organizations  the  principles 
of  the  endorsement  bureaus  of  the  local  chambers  of 


260  Social  Work 

commerce,  and  several  gestures  toward  co-ordination 
have  been  made  :  a  "National  Public  Health  Council," 
for  example,  has  been  formed,  and  similar  movements 
are  on  foot  in  other  fields.  Whether  these  hopeful 
efforts  will  result  in  a  genuine  co-ordination  (which 
would  involve  a  limitation  of  function  on  the  part  of 
many  organizations)  or  will  merely  add  to  the  confu- 
sion by  creating  new  national  bodies  charged  with 
"co-ordinating"  the  others,  remains  to  be  seen.  An 
actual  integration — a  daily  routine  of  practical  co- 
operation— is  what  is  required  both  in  local  communi- 
ties and  in  the  nation. 

As  a  means  of  reducing  the  confusion  in  the  national 
social  agencies  to  some  sort  of  order,  and  lessening 
the  number  of  appeals  which  they  now  make  to  the 
comparatively  few  people  who  are  in  the  habit  of  giving 
to  national  causes,  it  has  been  proposed  to  associate 
them  in  a  national  financial  federation  similar  to  those 
which  have  been  established  for  local  purposes  in  several 
cities.  In  these  cities,  however,  the  local  welfare  feder- 
ation might  not  welcome  such  a  proposal.  In  several 
cases  the  local  federation  includes  a  local  quota  for 
such  national  agencies  as  they  approve.  It  would 
complicate  rather  than  simplify  matters  for  the  Welfare 
Federation  in  Cleveland,  for  example,  if  it  had  to 
decide  what  to  raise  for  the  National  Child  Labor 
Committee  by  negotiating  with  a  national  welfare 
federation  of  which  the  Child  Labor  Committee  is  a 
member  instead  of  directly  with  that  Committee.     A 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  261 

national  federation  might  conceivably  find  a  field  of 
usefulness  in  a  common  presentation  of  the  national 
agencies  in  the  communities  where  there  is  no  local 
federation;  but  an  expansion  of  the  movement  for 
local  federations  seems  likely  to  be  in  the  line  of  less 
resistance. 

CONFERENCES 

For  half  a  century  the  National  Conference  of 
Social  Work,  until  1916  known  as  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction,  has  had  a  unique 
influence  over  the  whole  field  of  social  work.  Orig- 
inally a  small  gathering  of  members  and  officers  of 
state  boards  of  charities,  promoted  however  by  the 
American  Social  Science  Association,  through  the 
happy  accident  that  F.  B.  Sanborn  was  secretary  both 
of  the  Association  and  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Board  of  Charities,  it  has  steadily  expanded  until  its 
membership,  running  into  the  thousands,  represents 
every  conceivable  kind  of  voluntary  and  official  action 
for  the  social  welfare.  Like  the  social  service  exchange, 
its  usefulness  is  believed  to  depend  upon  a  self-denying 
practice.  It  is  for  conference  only.  It  eschews  resolu- 
tions of  a  propagandist  nature  and  has  no  platform. 
It  seeks  to  secure  for  its  programs  those  who  have 
ideas  or  experience  or  both,  and  its  papers  are  thrown 
open  to  discussion.  It  has  a  departmental  organization, 
by  which  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  various  fields 
of  social  work  are  brought  together  for  more  concen- 
trated discussion  of  their  particular  problems  than  is 


262  Social  Work 

possible  in  the  general  sessions  of  the  Conference, 
while  before,  during,  and  after  its  week  of  sessions 
many  organizations  known  generically  as  "kindred 
groups"  hold  independent  meetings  which  are  in  effect 
supplementary  to  the  Conference  program. 

In  several  states  there  are  similar  annual  conferences, 
and  there  are  also  district  and  city  conferences  in  which 
the  discussions  often  rival  in  interest  those  of  the 
national  body.  In  these  local  conferences  the  members, 
having  all  in  mind  the  same  general  background,  may 
sometimes  come  closer  to  the  actualities  and  difficulties 
of  their  task  than  in  a  national  body  whose  members 
have  indeed  common  interests,  but  also  very  different 
environments  to  consider. 

The  printed  volumes  of  proceedings  of  the  national 
and  state  conferences  are  constantly  adding  to  the  use- 
ful technical  literature  of  social  work.  The  discussions 
and  informal  personal  consultations  among  those  who 
attend  help  to  make  interesting  developments  and  ex- 
periments more  quickly  known,  to  subject  doubtful 
theories  to  a  more  critical  examination,  and  above  all, 
to  pass  on  to  the  constantly  increasing  body  of  profes- 
sional and  volunteer  workers  the  common  traditions 
and  standards  of  social  work.  Training  schools,  period- 
icals like  The  Survey  for  social  workers  in  general, 
and  special  periodicals  in  particular  fields,  serve  this 
purpose  also,  but  it  would  be  hard  to  over-estimate  the 
service  which  the  National  Conference  has  rendered 
in  this  respect. 


Co-ordination  and  Supervision  263 

OFFICIAL  BOARDS 

State  boards  of  charities  and  correction,  of  control, 
of  public  welfare,  have  an  official  relation  to  the  co- 
.ordination  of  institutions  and  welfare  agencies.  The 
earliest  of  these  boards,  created  just  after  the  civil 
war,  were  fortunate  in  many  of  their  members  and 
executives.  They  had  a  long  vision,  and  their  work 
began  in  a  heroic  period.  The  National  Conference 
was  due  to  their  recognition  of  the  need  for  exchang- 
ing views  and  experiences,  and  state  conferences  have 
usually  been  due  to  their  encouragement.  Charged  by 
law  with  the  inspection  of  state  charitable  institutions, 
and  of  private  institutions  which  receive  public  funds, 
if  not  others,  and  with  the  duty  of  making  recom- 
mendations to  the  governor  or  legislature,  the  state 
boards  of  charities — and  in  some  states  separate  prison 
commissions  and  commissions  for  the  insane — are 
naturally  important  agencies  of  co-ordination  and  su- 
pervision. 

The  state  has  sometimes  established  a  board  of 
control  or  administration,  which  replaces  the  board 
of  managers  for  separate  institutions,  and  the  board  of 
control  may  or  may  not  replace  also  the  state  board 
of  charities.  For  some  years  a  vigorous  controversy 
raged  over  the  relative  advantages  of  a  supervisory 
state  board,  with  the  powers  only  of  inspection  and 
recommendation,  and  the  board  of  control,  which 
should  administer  rather  than  inspect.     In  a  few  states 


264  Social  Work 

a  single  state  official,  known  as  fiscal  supervisor  or 
commissioner,  has  been  given  large  administrative 
powers,  or  even  the  entire  responsibility  under  the 
governor  for  managing  the  state  charitable  institutions 
or  the  prisons.  The  general  consensus  of  qualified 
opinion  at  present  is  that,  however  the  institutions  may 
be  administered,  there  should  be  an  independent  state 
board  with  powers  of  inspection,  supervision,  and 
recommendation;  and  charged  also  with  the  duty  of 
searching  out  the  causes  of  insanity,  criminality,  and 
dependence,  and  their  remedies. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
FINANCES:     I 


Social  work  is  supported  by  (1)  taxation;  (2)  in- 
come from  endowments  created  by  bequests  or  gifts; 
(3)  earnings,  i.  e.,  payments  made  by  or  on  behalf  of 
beneficiaries;  and  (4)  current  voluntary  contributions. 

Bequests,  current  contributions,  and  appropriations 
from  public  funds  may  be  restricted  so  as  to  be  avail- 
able only  for  specified  purposes.  In  the  absence  of 
any  contrary  stipulation,  bequests  may  be  used,  like 
other  contributions,  for  current  expenses,  or  they  may 
be  placed  in  a  reserve  fund  to  be  drawn  upon  in 
emergencies,  or  they  may  be  kept  as  permanent  funds, 
of  which  only  the  income  is  regarded  as  available  for 
current  work.  Either  bequests  or  gifts  from  a  living 
donor  may  be  made  through  a  trustee  instead  of 
directly  to  the  social  agency;  and  the  trustee  may  be, 
or  may  be  associated  with,  a  community  trust  or  founda- 
tion created  for  the  very  purpose  of  receiving  and  ap- 
plying such  gifts  and  bequests.  Amounts  thus  con- 
tributed through  a  community  trust,  like  others,  may 
be  either  restricted  to  specified  purposes  or  given  freely 
to  be  applied  to  any  appropriate  purpose  as  the  trustee 

205 


266  Social  Work 

or  foundation  may  decide.  Funds  needed  for  current 
work  may  be  obtained  by  the  social  agency  directly 
from  the  donors,  as  has  been  the  usual  practice  from 
time  immemorial,  or  they  may  be  obtained  on  behalf 
of  several  or  all  of  the  social  agencies  through  a  welfare 
federation  or  community  fund,  like  those  recently  estab- 
lished and  in  successful  operation  in  many  American 
cities.  Temporarily  work  may  be  carried  on  by  bor- 
rowing, or  by  using  up  inherited  permanent  funds. 

The  term  voluntary  contributions  covers  receipts 
from  a  great  variety  of  motives.  It  might  indeed  be 
extended  to  include  bequests  and  the  income  from 
permanent  funds;  public  appropriations  to  voluntary 
agencies;  and  even  sums  paid  by  hospital  patients  or 
by  parents  to  meet  a  part  of  the  expense  of  the  care 
of  their  children  in  institutions,  since  in  one  or  another 
sense  all  of  these  are  voluntary.  Obviously,  however, 
they  differ  from  the  ordinary  contributions  of  the 
private  citizen  or  corporation.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
of  the  income  included  in  voluntary  contributions — 
such  as  that  secured  by  charity  balls,  card  parties,  or 
by  strong  social  pressure — may  reflect  only  a  modicum 
of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  giver  in  the  cause  to 
which  the  income  is  applied,  and  to  describe  him  as  a 
voluntary  contributor  requires  a  certain  leniency  of 
language. 

GOVERNMENTAL    SOCIAL    WORK 

Tax  payers  support  both  institutions  and  home  serv- 


Finances:  I  267 

ice  from  much  the  same  motives  which  bring  voluntary 
contributions  to  private  agencies.  Not  that  all  the 
motives  which  influence  citizens  as  tax  payers  and  those 
which  influence  them  as  voluntary  contributors  are 
identical;  but  increasingly  the  appeals  for  adequate 
public  funds  for  welfare  work  and  those  for  voluntary 
contributions  are  found  to  bear  a  striking  family  resem- 
blance. Sympathy,  humanity,  generosity,  such  charity 
as  the  ancient  Jews  called  justice  and  the  early  Chris- 
tians called  love,  civic  pride,  a  sense  of  common 
decency,  and  similar  chords  are  played  upon  quite  as 
effectively  in  a  state  legislature  or  before  county  com- 
missioners or  city  aldermen  as  in  the  letters  of  appeal 
sent  out  by  settlements  or  relief  agencies.  The  argu- 
ments before  congressional  committees  in  favor  of 
maternity  aid  through  federal  appropriations,  and  be- 
fore state  legislative  committees  for  mothers'  pensions, 
might  equally  have  been  used  to  persuade  some  one 
of  large  means  to  establish  a  foundation  for  similar 
purposes,  or  a  community  trust  to  include  them  in  its 
appropriations. 

Although  the  line  between  governmental  and  volun- 
tary activities  is  not  easily  drawn,  it  is  easier  to  separate 
those  who  instinctively  favor  and  those  who  persistently 
oppose  the  expansion  of  the  functions  of  government. 
Probably  voluntary  agencies  are  expanding  quite  as 
remarkably  as  the  social  welfare  activities  of  govern- 
ments, but  from  the  nature  of  the  case  this  does  not 
create  political  issues — at  least  not  so  directly  and  im- 


268  Social  Wmk 

mediately — and  therefore  attracts  less  attention.  The 
limitation  of  voluntary  social  work  lies  in  the  imagina- 
tion and  knowledge  of  its  promoters  and  in  the  amount 
of  support  they  can  secure.  The  limitation  of  govern- 
mental work  lies  in  the  conception  held  by  the  people 
and  their  representatives  of  the  proper  scope  of  govern- 
ment and  in  the  revenues  obtainable  from  sources  which 
have  been  recognized  as  legitimately  subject  to  taxation. 
In  practice,  however,  these  distinctions  tend  to  dis- 
appear. Social  workers  with  knowledge  or  imagination 
may  be  quite  as  successful  in  persuading  executives  and 
legislators  to  forget  their  political  creeds  in  the  face 
of  some  urgent  need  which  has  been  neglected  as  in 
coaxing  new  wealth  from  those  who  have  not  learned 
the  pleasure  of  giving.  Nearly  all  barriers  are  down. 
Old  age  pensions,  widows'  pensions,  maternity  aid, 
eye  glasses  and  braces  for  children  who  need  them, 
meals  for  under-nourished  school  children,  bonuses  for 
ex-service  men,  are  likely  to  be  supplied  or  withheld 
not  on  any  theory  as  to  what  is  or  what  is  not  in  accord- 
ance with  our  political  traditions,  but  in  accordance  with 
the  strength  of  the  case  made  out  by  their  advocates. 

THE  LOWER  LEVELS  OF  TAXPAYING  ABILITY 

Excess  profit  taxes,  income  surtaxes,  general  sales 
taxes,  to  say  nothing  of  franchise  taxes  and  inheritance 
taxes,  have  added  enormously  to  the  public  revenues; 
and  in  addition  funds  which  could  logically  have  been 
taken  as  taxes  were  found  for  the  war  loans.   To  repay 


Finances:  I  269 

these  loans  war  taxes  will  have  to  be  continued ;  although 
some  of  the  war  burdens  and  the  special  taxes  levied 
to  meet  them  have  already  been  reduced.  The  enlighten- 
ing discovery  of  the  unsuspcted  fertility  of  these  lower 
layers  of  tax-paying  ability,  made  once  for  all,  must 
have  its  influence  on  future  policies.  Unearned  incre- 
ments on  land  values,  arising  from  the  mere  develop- 
ment of  industry  and  increase  of  population,  independ- 
ently of  any  service  rendered  by  the  landowner,  have 
never  yet  been  applied  to  common  purposes  to  the  extent 
which  sound  principles  of  taxation  require.  Excess 
profits  in  banking  and  in  such  industries  as  oil  and  steel 
production  are  now  so  clearly  matters  of  record  that 
they  cannot  be  denied ;  nor  should  such  abnormal  profits 
escape  taxation  on  the  theory  that  there  may  be  losses 
as  well  as  profits.  Rather  than  admit  such  a  plea  the 
nation  might  be  forced  to  consider  the  plan  for  state 
insurance  against  loss  of  investments  which  has  been 
seriously  proposed.  Certainly  it  would  be  a  doubtful 
experiment.  The  risk  of  bankruptcy  has  been  an  in- 
centive to  business  enterprise  and  a  safeguard  against 
reckless  ventures,  but  the  income  tax  returns  indicate 
that  a  heavy  price  is  paid  for  this  incentive  and  safe- 
guard. 

ENOUGH    FOR   ALL   NECESSARY   WORK 

Twenty  years  ago  the  fear  was  frequently  expressed 
by  conservative  financiers  that  expenditures  for  pur- 


270  Social  Work 

poses  of  the  social  welfare  might  be  near  the  margin 
of  ability  to  pay;  that  further  drain  on  the  public 
revenues  for  health,  education,  improvement  of  the 
standard  of  living,  might  encroach  upon  capital  neces- 
sary for  investment,  might  threaten  the  prosperity  on 
which  any  further  progress  depends.  The  war  ex- 
perience reduced  such  fears  to  absurdity.  For  war 
purposes  billions  of  dollars  were  instantly  forthcoming. 
Nor  is  this  all.  Even  when  the  national  demands  made 
it  a  patriotic  duty  to  conserve  wealth  and  to  apply  the 
productive  capacity  of  the  nation  strictly  to  the  com- 
mon welfare,  this  was  not  done.  Personal  fortunes 
increased  enormously  and  profligate  waste,  in  spite  of 
all  attempts  to  prevent  it,  was  more  conspicuous  than 
conservation.  The  one  undeniable  outstanding  fact  is 
that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  other  periods, 
or  whatever  may  be  the  present  situation  in  Europe 
or  Asia,  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  vastly 
more  wealth  than  they  have  realized,  and  apparently 
as  much  as  they  are  ever  likely  to  need  for  any  purpose 
of  social  well-being  which  they  regard  as  important. 
Wars  have  to  be  paid  for  on  the  spot;  but  if  their 
lessons  in  finance  are  not  taken  to  heart  and  applied  they 
may  be  paid  for  twice  over.  Through  disarmament 
the  nation  can  save  many  billions.  Through  such  pre- 
vention of  waste  as  the  engineering  societies  are  point- 
ing out  we  can  save  many  more.  If  we  wish  the 
people  of  the  nation  to  have  life  and  to  have  it  more 
abundantly  these  public  revenues,   augmented  by  the 


Finances:  I  271 

saving  of  waste  and  preparations  for  future  wars,  will 
be  applied  to  the  relief  and  prevention  of  poverty,  the 
prevention  of  hardships  from  unemployment,  the  care 
of  the  sick  and  the  eradication  of  disease,  the  re-plan- 
ning of  cities  and  towns  to  make  them  less  ugly  and 
more  comfortable,  the  re-location  of  industries,  the  pro- 
tection of  the  standards  of  workers,  and  the  education 
of  children  on  broader  lines,  including  physical,  techni- 
cal, moral,  and  religious  training.  We  can  make 
enough  useful  commodities  to  permit  a  comfortable 
and  rational  life  for  all  if  we  plan  our  agricultural, 
industrial,  and  commercial  life  with  that  end  in  view. 
Such  a  rational  life  implies  freedom  for  the  individual, 
not  a  slave  state.  It  implies,  however,  that  this  freedom 
may  be  sought  in  social,  co-operative  action,  and  that 
the  political  government  may  be  its  instrument. 

Social  work  as  a  part  of  governmental  action  will 
demand,  as  far  as  we  can  foresee  the  future,  a  con- 
stantly increasing  share  of  the  taxable  national,  state, 
and  local  wealth :  not  to  endow  inefficiency,  but  to 
reduce  it;  not  to  thwart  evolution,  but  to  give  it  pur- 
poseful direction;  not  to  increase  parasitic  life,  but 
to  make  us  conscious  of  its  various  forms  so  that  we 
may  eliminate  them;  not  to  take  from  the  strong  and 
provident  and  industrious  for  the  benefit  of  the  lazy, 
improvident,  and  criminal ;  but  to  control  crime  instead 
of  merely  playing  with  it,  to  promote  provident  thrift 
by  giving  it  a  chance  for  exercise,  and  to  put  even  the 
lazy  and   shiftless  under   conditions   which  will   give 


272  Social  Work 

them  motives  for  exertion  and  inducements  to  develop 
socially  desirable  habits. 

DEFECTS    OF    AMERICAN    LOCAL    POLITICS 

Inadequate  financial  support  is  not  the  only  handicap 
of  social  work  in  the  municipal,  county,  state,  and 
federal  governments.  It  has  suffered  also  from  the 
well-known  defects  of  our  politics.  We  have  not  suffi- 
ciently valued  expert  service.  We  have  changed  offi- 
cials too  often,  and  have  underpaid  them.  We  have 
tolerated  the  appointment  of  inferior  politicians  to 
positions  for  which  they  are  quite  unfitted.  We  have 
given  to  courageous  and  competent  executives,  judges, 
and  commissioners  far  too  little  of  that  indirect  and 
inexpensive,  but  precious  reward  which  lies  in  public 
recognition  of  the  value  of  their  services  and  loyal 
support  of  their  policies.  We  have  not  always  pro- 
tected them  from  the  hostility  or  revenge  of  selfish 
persons  whose  designs  they  have  opposed  in  the  public 
interest.  Such  obstacles  and  stupidities  as  these  may 
greatly  limit  the  usefulness  of  a  health  or  probation 
service,  a  child  welfare  bureau,  or  an  institution  for 
the  insane  or  the  sick.  It  is  no  exaggeration,  however, 
to  say  that  more  liberal  expenditures  have  been  the 
crying  need  of  nearly  all  public  agencies  charged  with 
responsibility  for  crime,  disease,  or  poverty,  and  that 
larger  appropriations  would  in  some  measure  eventually 
overcome  the  other  obstacles  which  have  interfered 
with  their  greatest  success. 


Finances:  I  273 


SUBSIDIES :       PARTNERSHIPS    BETWEEN    PUBLIC    AND 
PRIVATE  AGENCIES 

Voluntary  social  work  is  in  some  measure  supported 
by  taxation.  The  state  may  prefer  to  pay  private  insti- 
tutions for  the  care  of  children  whom  it  accepts  as 
public  charges,  or  for  placing  them  in  foster  homes; 
for  medical  and  surgical  care  of  patients  whom  it  would 
otherwise  have  to  provide  for  in  public  hospitals;  for 
the  service  which  a  private  charity  may  be  able  to 
perform  in  prosecuting  cases  of  cruelty  against  children 
or  animals;  or  for  conducting  a  library  or  museum. 
Such  arrangements  as  these — subsidy,  subvention,  con- 
tract, or  whatever  they  may  be  called — have  played  a 
large  part  in  the  educational  and  charitable  work  of 
a  few  states,  such  as  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
California,  while  in  the  large  majority  of  states  they 
have  been  entirely  unknown,  public  funds  being  ex- 
pended through  public  channels,  and  voluntary  agencies 
being  supported  entirely  by  voluntary  contributions  or 
bequests. 

Exemption  from  taxation,  which  is  general  in  all 
the  states,  is  not  regarded  as  a  subsidy.  Historically 
appropriations  to  educational,  religious,  or  philanthropic 
agencies  have  usually  been  made  first  as  subventions. 
When  there  is  a  contractual  basis — payment  on  a  per 
diem  and  per  capita  basis  in  proportion  to  the  service 
rendered — this    has    usually    come    afterwards,    as    a 


274  Social  Work 

method  of  reforming  or  improving  the  system.  PubHc 
grants  have  usually — though  not  always — had  the  effect 
of  diminishing  or  entirely  replacing  income  from  volun- 
tary sources.  There  have  been  instances  in  which  a 
private  institution  originally  supported  by  voluntary 
gifts  has  become  a  state  institution.  There  are  in- 
stances of  private  gifts  for  some  special  department  or 
activity  in  a  public  institution  or  associated  with  it. 
All  such  arrangements  must  be  judged  on  their  merits. 
They  may  be  more  economical,  freer  from  politics,  than 
a  straight  governmental  or  a  straight  voluntary  institu- 
tion. Personal  considerations  may  be  the  determining 
factor.  Possibly  the  work  to  be  done  is  necessarily 
located  in  or  alongside  a  public  institution  because  of 
its  character,  like  the  social  research  bureau  at  Bedford 
Reformatory  for  Women  or  the  institute  for  the  study 
of  diseases  of  old  age  conducted  for  a  time  on  Black- 
well's  Island,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  so  experi- 
mental or  so  specialized  that  it  is  impracticable  or  even 
undesirable  to  secure  public  appropriations  for  them. 
Private  support  for  a  period  may  lead  to  the  adoption 
by  the  state  of  the  experiment.  Frequently,  however, 
even  such  promising  experiments  develop  more  fric- 
tion than  co-operation.  Public  support  of  a  private 
institution  may  be  better  than  that  it  should  be  sup- 
ported by  begging  or  inadequately  supported.  In  a 
given  situation,  as  for  example  when  large  investments 
have  been  made  from  voluntary  gifts  in  buildings  and 
ecjuipment,  it  may  be  more  economical  to  continue  to 


Finances:  I  275 

pay  for  the  care  of  children  or  patients  in  them  than 
to  build  parallel  plants  at  public  expense.  The  difficult 
problem  of  religious  instruction  in  a  country  which 
believes  in  the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state 
may  seem  to  justify  a  contract  or  subsidy  system,  but 
unless  for  such  special  or  local  reasons  the  sound  princi- 
ple would  seem  to  be  that  which  we  have  followed  in 
the  case  of  education :  public  expenditure  in  public 
schools,  voluntary  support  of  voluntary  schools.  This, 
except  for  tax  exemptions,  is  the  general  policy  which 
has  been  pursued  in  all  except  a  few  states. 

ENDOWMENTS 

The  second  source  of  support  for  voluntary  social 
work  to  be  considered  is  endowments.  Along  with  in- 
vested funds  which  yield  an  income  for  current  work 
we  may  put  investment  in  buildings,  grounds,  and 
other  permanent  equipment  owned  by  the  agencies. 
Expenditure  for  such  purposes  is  said  to  be  made  on 
capital  account.  Even  when  bequests  and  other  unusual 
gifts  are  regarded  as  permanent  funds  they  may  usually 
be  invested  in  necessary  plant,  as  this  avoids  the  cur- 
rent expense  of  rent.  Bequests  may  not  be  received 
each  year,  but  if  received  at  all  they  may  be  expected 
within  the  lifetime  of  a  permanent  building,  and  their 
use  in  such  investment  will  therefore  not  unduly  disturb 
financial  calculations. 

Bequests  for  endowment  have  played  a  large  and  not 


276  Social  Work 

always  beneficial  part  in  the  history  of  philanthropy. 
The  reproach  that  they  are  made  at  the  expense  of 
heirs  and  cost  the  testator  nothing  is  not  entirely  justi- 
fied, as  the  owner  might  of  course  have  used  his  wealth 
instead  of  becjueathing  it,  and  a  desire  to  give  in  his  will 
may  often  be  a  distinct  motive  for  earning,  conserving, 
carefully  investing  and  saving.  A  will  may  be  so  dis- 
criminatingly drawn  as  to  express,  perhaps  better  than 
any  other  overt  act  in  the  donor's  life,  his  personal 
judgment  and  preferences  as  to  what  shall  be  done 
with  his  fortune.  Bequests  which  are  not  merely 
acquiescence  in  the  traditions  of  a  class,  but  a  genuine 
expression  of  the  giver's  personality,  especially  if  he 
has  accurately  informed  himself  concerning  the  need 
which  he  proposes  to  meet  and  the  agencies  through 
which  he  intends  to  work,  may  represent  one  of  the 
best  possible  uses  of  wealth.  An  unconditional  bequest 
to  the  endowment  funds  of  a  well  established  library, 
museum,  orchestra,  university,  hospital,  or  similar  in- 
stitution intended  for  the  common  use  of  all,  is  hardly 
open  to  criticism  or  question.  The  institution  is  en- 
riched for  its  useful  service  and  is  as  free  as  before 
to  change  its  methods  when  its  trustees  so  decide, 
whether  under  the  pressure  of  outside  public  opinion 
or  as  a  result  of  their  own  observation  and  study.  By 
complete  endowment  such  institutions  might  be  relieved 
from  the  obligation  to  justify  their  existence  in  each 
generation  by  their  results,  and  this  might  be  a  great 
and  irreparable  misfortune.     But  such  institutions  are 


Finances:  I  277 

not  likely  to  reach  this  state  of  complete  saturation. 
Competition  or  public  supervision  may  save  them  if 
they  become  too  complacent.  A  more  serious  danger 
is  that  of  relative  conservatism,  and  against  this  there 
is  no  adequate  protection  except  an  alert  public  opinion. 

Bequests  for  the  endowment  of  relief  and  of  remedial 
reforms  are  of  more  doubtful  utility.  Relief  and 
reform-promoting  agencies  should  be  above  all  plastic, 
responsive  to  changing  conditions.  If  endowed  at  all,  it 
should  be  under  conditions  which  create  no  presumption 
whatever  of  spending  money  in  a  particular  way  or  of 
continuing  to  spend  it  for  a  particular  purpose. 

If  by  undue  age,  either  physiological  or  mental,  or 
by  inbreeding  of  a  particular  social  set  or  class,  the 
trustees  of  an  orphan  asylum  or  a  relief  society  or  a 
dispensary  have  become  unfit  to  appreciate  a  new  situa- 
tion, or  to  see  that  ideas  on  which  they  have  been 
acting  are  no  longer  tenable,  an  endowment  may  be  a 
terrible  handicap.  They  have  not  only  to  change  their 
own  minds,  which  is  difficult,  but  also  to  get  over  the 
feeling  that  any  change  would  be  a  sort  of  disloyalty 
to  their  old  associate.  If  they  have  not  known  the 
founder  personally  they  may  still  feel  a  peculiar  trustee- 
ship to  continue  the  policies,  approval  ©f  which  perhaps 
induced  him  years  ago  to  select  this  particular  board 
of  trustees  to  carry  out  his  .desires.  Faithful  trustee- 
ship is  a  very  valuable  social  asset.  An  imputed  or 
assumed  trusteeship,  however,  may  become  an  obstacle 
to  the  best  use  of  wealth.     A  very  prominent  banker 


278  Social  Work 

who  was  treasurer  of  a  charitable  society  once  argued 
seriously  that  by  pursuing  the  policy  of  putting  un- 
restricted bequests  in  the  permanent  fund  for  a  few 
years,  even  though  no  public  declaration  was  made  that 
this  policy  w^ould  be  pursued,  an  implied  contract  was 
created  with  all  future  testators.  They  would  have  a 
right  to  assume  that  their  bequests,  although  wholly 
unrestricted,  would  be  preserved  intact  in  a  permanent 
fund,  only  the  income  being  used,  merely  because,  at 
the  time  when  they  made  their  will,  they  understood 
that  the  society  treated  its  bequests  in  this  way.  What 
the  one  who  is  drawing  a  will  thinks  at  the  time  when 
he  is  engaged  in  this  solemn  undertaking  is  probably 
better  known  to  lawyers  than  to  others.  It  would  be 
advantageous  if  lawyers  with  experience  in  will-making 
would  take  the  public  into  confidence  more  frequently, 
which  of  course  they  could  do  without  violating  pro- 
fessional confidences.  Probably  something  depends 
on  whether  the  will-maker  is  accustomed  to  thinking 
most  of  funds  or  of  folks;  of  institutions  or  of  the 
people  whom  institutions  are  intended  to  serve.  If  it 
is  the  latter,  an  unrestricted  legacy  is  probably  visualized 
as  expended,  as  used  to  help  people.  He  probably  looks 
for  his  permanent  memorial  elsewhere  than  in  a  per- 
petual investment  of  this  contribution  in  gilt-edged 
securities.  Useful  work  on  the  largest  scale  which  his 
gift  permits,  so  obviously  beneficial  that  it  will  stimulate 
other  gifts  to  be  used  in  turn  as  the  conditions  require 
when  they  are  made  or  when  they  become  available, 


Finances:  I  279 

might  well  be  regarded  one  of  the  best  monuments 
which  any  particular  gift  can  create. 

Endowments  for  research  or  for  education  may  be 
defended,  although  even  in  these  fields  appropriations 
to  universities  from  public  funds  raised  by  taxation  are 
now  competing  with  endowments  and  seem  likely  to 
overshadow  them.  Endowments  for  relief  or  for  social 
reform,  for  housing,  for  prosecuting  particular  offenses, 
for  child  welfare,  for  propagating  particular  opinions, 
are  of  very  doubtful  utility.  This  is  not  to  disparage 
bequests  to  such  forms  of  social  work,  but  only  to  sug- 
gest that  neither  the  donor  nor  the  beneficiary  society 
should  make  them  into  endowments  or  permanent 
funds.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  distributing 
bequests  over  a  few  years,  in  order  to  avoid  the  em- 
barrassment which  might  come  from  unequal  receipts. 
A  moderate  reserve  fund  is  justifiable,  and  bequests 
might  be  used  for  such  funds  rather  more  freely  than 
regular  annual  contributions.  The  whole  subject  of 
the  posthumous  use  of  wealth  needs  to  be  more  freely 
and  openly  discussed.  Testators  should  have  all  the 
latitude  compatible  with  the  public  interest.  Variety 
which  will  give  ample  expression  to  personal  differences 
is  to  be  encouraged.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  adopt 
a  formal  community  program  to  which  all  who  are 
making  bequests  would  be  expected  to  conform.  The 
state  has  a  right  to  see  that  nothing  prejudicial  to  the 
public  interest  is  done.  Subject  only  to  that  limitation, 
nothing  but  good  may  be  expected  to  result  from  the 


280  Social  Work 

greatest  individual  initiative  in  bequests  for  social 
work,  provided  they  are  made  not  for  endowment  in 
perpetuity  but  for  expenditure,  principal  and  interest, 
within  a  reasonable  period. 


CHAPTER    XVII 
FINANCES :     II 


EARNINGS 

Earnings  constitute  a  substantial  part  of  the  income 
of  private  hospitals,  homes  for  aged,  and  some  other 
agencies;  a  smaller,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
self-respect  of  the  beneficiary  an  important  element  in 
the  income  of  day  nurseries,  visiting  nurse  associa- 
tions, and  other  agencies;  and  a  negligible  element,  or 
none  at  all,  in  that  of  agencies  engaged  in  home  service, 
housing  reform,  prevention  of  tuberculosis,  etc.  Even 
in  those  cases  a  national  or  state  agency  may  render  a 
service  for  which  compensation  is  made  by  a  local 
agency,  or  other  inter-association  arrangements  may 
be  made  which  would  be  reflected  in  what  might  be 
called  earnings;  but  income,  however  many  times  it 
may  be  transferred  from  one  treasury  to  another,  is 
best  described  in  accordance  with  its  original  source, 
and  it  is  earnings  in  the  proper  sense  only  if  it  has 
come  from  the  ultimate  beneficiary  in  whole  or  part 
payment  for  the  service  which  he  has  received  or  in 
the  marketing  of  the  product  of  work  done  in  or  under 
the  auspices  of  the  institution. 

281 


282  Social  Work 


Amounts  received  from  the  public  treasury  for  ^he 
care  of  those  who  have  been  formally  or  tacitly  accepted 
as  public  charges  may  be  regarded,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  as  earnings,  i.  e.,  payment  on  contract  for  the 
performance  of  a  public  service,  or  as  subsidies,  sub- 
ventions, public  gifts  made  in  general  recognition  of 
the  value  of  the  service. 

Charges  in  a  hospital,  dispensar}',  home  for  aged, 
day  nursery,  or  for  the  services  of  a  visiting  nurse, 
may  be  according  to  a  fixed  scale  or  may  vary  with  the 
ability  and  disposition  of  the  one  who  pays.  A  well- 
to-do  patient  in  a  private  room  may  pay  an  amount 
w^hich  yields  a  profit ;  but  usually  such  accommodations 
represent  only  a  small  part  of  the  hospital's  service, 
and  so-called  pay  patients,  like  college  students,  are 
usually  beneficiaries  of  philanthropy  if  their  only  con- 
tribution is  what  they  are  charged.  The  collection  of 
small  amounts  from  those  whose  standard  of  living 
is  low  and  whose  incomes  do  not  provide  for  a  surplus 
is  of  doubtful  social  advantage.  It  is  vexatious  and 
expensive.  Those  who  pay  may  know  that  others  as 
well  situated  as  themselves  have  received  free  treat- 
ment. In  as  far  as  the  charge  acts  as  a  deterrent  it 
is  objectionable,  since  the  important  matter  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  public  interest  is  that  the  sick  shall 
be  treated,  the  helpless  aged  receive  appropriate  atten- 
tion. The  commitment  of  children,  or  their  retention, 
should  not  turn  on  the  success  of  a  collecting  agency, 
but  on  the  welfare  of  the  children,  which  may  best 


! 


Finances:  II  283 

be  promoted  by  insisting  on  their  remaining  in  their 
own  homes  or  putting  them  in  boarding  or  foster 
homes  even  though  the  parents  are  ready  and  able  to 
pay  what  would  be  charged  to  care  for  them  in  the 
institution.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  better  for 
them  to  have  institutional  discipline  even  if  the  parents 
want  them  at  home.  It  is  quite  right  for  parents  to 
be  required  to  pay  if  they  can,  but  not  to  rely  upon 
the  enforcement  of  payments  as  a  deterrent  against 
applications  or  as  an  easy  method  of  deciding  questions 
which  should  turn  upon  entirely  different  considera- 
tions. 

PAYING   OCCUPATIONS    IX    INSTITUTIONS 

The  employment  of  children  in  juvenile  protectories, 
of  young  women  in  reformatory  institutions,  and  of 
adult  prisoners  in  occupations  which  yield  an  income, 
presents  even  more  difficulties  and  objectionable  fea- 
tures. Shop  work  may  have  educational  value,  but 
if  the  value  of  the  product  becomes  an  appreciable  ele- 
ment in  the  income  of  the  institution  its  educational 
character  may  be,  and  is  likely  to  be,  neglected.  The 
making  of  white  goods,  the  running  of  a  commercial 
laundry,  are  good  illustrations  of  the  kinds  of  work 
which  are  commercially  profitable  but  which  soon  ex- 
haust their  educational  value.  The  manager  of  an 
institution  which  is  supported  by  public  funds  or  by 
voluntary  contributions   should  not  be  placed  in  the 


284  Social  Work 

delicate  position  of  having  to  decide  how  to  reconcile 
two  such  conflicting  and  incompatible  aims.    The  occu- 
pations of  children  and  of  adolescents  should  be  such 
as  have  the  maximum  educational  value,  whether  this 
yields  a  marketable  product  or  not.     Reformatory  or 
prison  labor  which  competes  with  free  industry  places 
the  latter  at  an  unfair  disadvantage.     The  commodities 
produced  by  prison  labor  could  be  sold  at  a  low  price 
merely  because  in  their  cost  of  production  there  are 
no  items  corresponding  to  'rent,  wages,  supervision,  and 
taxes ;  and  the  occupations  which  would  yield  a  salable 
product  are  very  apt  to  be  those  in  which  there  are 
the  lowest  wages  outside  the  prisons,  so  that  society, 
in  training  for  them,  has  done  the  worst,  rather  than 
the  best,  to  prepare  the  prisoner  for  self-support  on 
discharge.      For   such    reasons    the   prisons    are   now 
ordinarily  debarred  from  producing  goods  for  sale  in 
the  open  market,  although  employment  on  the  manu- 
facture of  things  which  the  state  itself  would  other- 
wise have  to  buy  is  generally  permitted,  and  prisoners 
are  also  used  in  such  public  work  as  road  building. 
In  the  case  of  children  the  problem  is  simple,  as 
there  should  clearly  be  no  marketable  product  whatever. 
Manual  training  and  technical  trade  teaching  should 
be  provided  as  in  the  ordinary  schools.     In  many  in- 
stances, in  fact,  institutional  children  may  advantag- 
eously be  taught  in  the  regular  public  schools,  while 
other  institutions  may  be  so  fortunate  as  to  have  funds, 
teachers,  and  plant  to  set  the  pace  for  the  most  pro- 


Finances:  II  285 

gressive  specialized  education  and  to  try  out  experi- 
ments from  which  pubHc  schools  themselves  may  profit. 
Older  persons  who  are  confined  in  prisons  and  re- 
formatories, if  teachable,  are  also  candidates  for  edu- 
cation, both  academic  and  vocational;  and  the  public 
interest  will  be  most  clearly  promoted  by  organizing 
the  routine  of  prison  life  in  such  a  way  as  to  get  the 
maximum  educational  result  in  the  briefest  time.  This 
will  not  be  inconsistent,  however,  wdth  their  spending 
a  considerable  part  of  their  time  in  productive  labor. 
The  greatest  cruelty  of  the  prison  regime,  and  the  most 
stupid — and  this  is  saying  much — is  the  idleness  in 
which  prisoners  spend  a  large  part  of  their  period  of 
incarceration.  The  best  middle  ground  between  the 
system  of  contract  prison  labor,  with  its  obvious  evils, 
or  any  other  system  which  brings  prison  labor  into 
direct  competition  with  free  labor  in  the  open  market, 
and  idleness  or  artificial  employment,  appears  to  be  a 
state-use  system,  under  which  roads  are  built  or  furni- 
ture, clothing,  etc.,  manufactured,  not  for  general  sale, 
but  for  use  in  state  institutions.  It  is  true  that  this 
reduces  by  just  so  much  the  demand  for  these  articles 
or  services  in  the  open  market,  but  on  the  other  hand 
the  labor  applied  to  them  is  likewise  withdrawn  from 
the  labor  supply.  The  prison  itself  is  abnormal  and 
obsolete;  and  the  task  of  deciding  how  to  relate  prison 
labor  to  free  labor,  and  the  earnings  of  prisoners  to 
the  finances  of  the  institution,  is  incapable  of  any  ideal 
solution. 


286  Social  Work 

CURRENT  CONTRIBUTIONS 

Contributions  from  interested  individuals  are  the 
back-bone  of  the  financial  support  of  voluntary  social 
work.*  They  are  sometimes  called  membership  dues, 
and  may  be  nicely  graded  from  regular  or  annual  or 
minimum  subscriptions  up  to  a  sum  which  would 
make  the  contributor  a  life  member  or  patron  or 
founder.  Various  terms  are  used  for  intermediate 
amounts,  such  as  sustaining  or  contributing  or  asso- 
ciate membership.  Some  agencies  make  a  point  of 
regarding  any  contribution,  even  the  least,  as  estab- 
lishing membership.  Others  carefully  restrict  their 
membership  by  election,  in  addition  to  the  usual  pay- 
ment of  dues.  As  members  have  generally  the  right 
to  elect  directors,  some  such  control  is  felt  to  be 
necessary,  even  though  election  to  membership  may 
usually  be  a  matter  of  course  for  all  who  show  their 
interest  by  a  contribution,  and  even  though  the  election 
of  directors  in  turn  may  be  perfunctory,  the  directors 
in  fact  usually  assuring  the  re-election  of  those  whose 
terms  expire  or  deciding  upon  their  successors.  There 
are  few  closer  corporations  than  the  boards  of  directors 
of  relief  societies,  settlements,  and  orphan  asylums. 
This  makes  for  continuity  of  policy,  consistent  and 
sustained  effort  to  accomplish  the  purposes  for  which 


*  For  an  interesting  discussion  of  philanthropic  giving — current 
practice,  motives,  and  ideals,  and  their  historical  background— see 
How  Much  Shall  I  Give?,  by  Lilian  Brandt,  published  by  The 
Frontier  Press,   1921. 


Finances:  II  287 

the  directors  conceive  the  society  to  exist,  and  congenial 
working  relations  among  the  directors  and  staff. 

On  the  whole  social  work  makes  a  stronger  and  more 
successful  appeal  to-day  than  ever  before.  Its  appeal 
is  fundamentally  to  sympathy.  Hunger  and  cold, 
stifling  heat,  sickness  and  accident,  unforeseen  or  un- 
preventable  misfortune,  helpless  old  age,  widowhood 
and  orphanage,  unemployment,  insufficient  earnings, 
are — as  they  have  always  been — grounds  on  which 
their  victims  may  demand  sympathy.  If  modern  social 
work  makes  a  less  naive  or  sentimental  appeal  than  its 
precursors  the  difference  is  not  very  great,  and  it  is  a 
question  whether  the  agencies  which  revert  to  the  oldest 
and  simplest  forms  of  appeal  do  not  on  the  whole  get 
the  more  generous  response.  It  does  not  follow  that 
the  social  worker  in  the  agency  which  has  made  such 
an  elementary  and  successful  appeal  will  be  engaged 
in  doing  the  same  things  or  doing  them  in  the  same 
way  as  the  monk  of  the  twelfth  century  or  the  deacon 
of  the  first.  We  have  changed  our  practice  more  than 
the  language  of  our  appeals. 

DISCRIMINATION  IN  GIVING 

The  modern  contributor  differs  from  his  prototypes 
in  one  important  respect.  He  does  often  expect  to 
know  what  has  been  done  with  his  money.  He  may 
give  in  the  first  instance  for  much  the  same  reasons  that 
have  led  altruistic  people  to  respond  in  the  past  to 
appeals  for  charity;  but  he  has  been  trained  to  expect 


288  Social  Work 

an  account  of  stewardship.  The  annual  report  and  the 
numerous  other  pubHcations  through  which  the  agencies 
make  their  work  known  to  the  pubHc  have  changed  the 
relation  between  social  work  and  the  contributor.  The 
appeal  itself  has  been  modified  to  some  extent  by 
becoming  at  the  same  time  a  program  for  the  future 
?nd  a  summary  account  of  previous  work.  The  success 
of  modern  social  work  is  predicated  upon  the  discrim- 
inating intelligence  of  the  citizen. 

PUBLICITY 

The  newspapers  often  give  generous  space  to  the 
work  of  social  agencies.  Some  of  them  which  have 
religious  affiliations  are  discussed  and  commended  from 
the  pulpit.  Public  meetings  are  held,  either  independ- 
ently or  in  connection  wath  an  annual  meeting  for  the 
transaction  of  official  business.  Opportunities  are 
sought  and  obtained  for  presenting  the  needs  of  a 
society  at  a  civic  luncheon,  in  the  inter\^als  of  a  theatri- 
cal or  motion  picture  program,  or  wherever  else  poten- 
tial givers  are  gathered  and  managers  are  hospitable. 
Directors  and  interested  members  or  friends  of  a  social 
agency  may  call  personally  on  their  friends,  or  the 
telephone  may  be  utilized  in  a  systematic  effort  to  reach 
a  large  number  of  prospects  in  a  given  time.  The 
letter  of  appeal,  sent  through  the  mails,  both  to  regular 
contributors  and  to  those  w4io  for  any  reason  are  re- 
garded as  proper  subjects  for  persuasion,  furnishes  on 
the  whole  the  most  widely  used  and  the  most  reliable 


Finances:  II  289 

means  of  securing  support.  The  preparation  of  the 
maiUng  Hst,  the  formulation  of  the  appeal,  the  typo- 
graphical appearance  of  the  letter,  the  timeliness  of  its 
dispatch,  the  follow-up  by  a  second  or  third  letter  or 
by  a  call,  the  acknowledgment  of  a  contribution  or  of 
a  declination  and  the  subsequent  cultivation  of  the 
interest  of  those  who  show  an  interest  by  a  contribution 
or  otherwise,  are  all  matters  which  have  received  the 
most  painstaking  attention  of  executives.  The  finan- 
cial secretary  has  appeared  in  the  large  societies,  with 
the  particular  duty  of  devising  and  carrying  out  meas- 
ures for  securing  contributions  and  such  other  duties 
as  are  related  to  this  function.  There  have  even  arisen 
firms  of  financial  experts,  whose  services  may  be 
secured  for  a  special  drive  or  campaign  by  any  college, 
Y.M.C.A.,  or  other  institution  which  contemplates  rais- 
ing a  large  sum  or  whose  finances  have  fallen  seriously 
behind  their  current  needs. 

DRIVES 

"Drives"  or  "whirlwind  campaigns"  are  a  compara- 
tively recent  device  for  breaking  into  new  circles  and 
for  cashing  in  potential  support.  Colleges  and  churches 
have  resorted  to  them.  The  war  perfected  this  inten- 
sive and  carefully  prepared  campaign  method  and  re- 
vealed to  all  its  immense  possibilities,  assuming  a  pub- 
lic reasonably  sympathetic  with  the  cause  for  which 
the  drive  is  made.  Posters,  shop-window  exhibits, 
booths  in  public  places,  parades;  brief  telling  addresses; 


290  Social  Work 

pressure  from  associates,  employers,  teachers,  clergy- 
men, the  press ;  tagging  the  giver ;  and  every  other  con- 
ceivable means  of  attracting  attention  and  forcing  a 
favorable  response,  was  exploited  to  the  utmost  by  offi- 
cial and  unofficial  war  drives.  A  few  sensitive  souls 
early  revolted  against  these  methods,  but  on  the  whole 
they  continued  to  be  productive.  After  the  war  the 
colleges  and  universities,  whose  burdens  were  great 
because  of  increased  attendance  and  whose  incomes 
had  shrunk  because  of  the  rise  in  prices,  fell  into  line 
in  a  series  of  drives,  organized  somewhat  differently 
from  those  of  the  war  appeals,  but  equally  insistent  to 
their  more  limited  audiences,  and  in  many  instances, 
though  not  in  all,  equally  successful.  By  such  means 
some  of  them  substantially  increased  their  building  and 
endowment  funds.  The  churches  had  in  the  mean- 
time shown  themselves  equally  apt  students  of  the  psy- 
chology of  the  drive.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  for  example,  had  been  securing  before  the 
world  war  about  $3,000,000  a  year  for  its  eight  general 
boards :  those  of  foreign  missions  and  home  missions 
having  much  larger  incomes  than  the  other  six.  The 
Centenary  Fund,  initiated  primarily  as  a  means  of 
increasing  the  funds  of  these  two  missionary  boards, 
was  planned  with  great  care  and  foresight.  Thorough 
surveys  were  made  of  the  purposes  for  which  money 
was  required,  and  a  five-year  program  was  laid  out. 
In  each  of  twenty  areas  a  local  organization  was 
effected.     The  campaign  began  with  well-devised  plans 


Finances:  II  291 

for  Interesting  the  people,  not  in  the  raising  of  money, 
but  in  the  work  to  be  done,  in  the  means  of  grace  by 
which  it  was  hoped  to  accomplish  it.  The  tithing  sys- 
tem was  revived.  The  net  result  of  the  campaign  was 
to  increase  the  contributions  for  the  church  boards  from 
three  millions  a  year  to  fifteen  millions.  This  was 
not  at  the  expense  of  other  denominational  activities. 
On  the  contrary,  all  of  these  benefited,  some  of  them 
relatively  even  more  than  the  missionary  boards. 
Church  congregations  and  Sunday  Schools  expanded; 
the  resources  of  local  churches  and  of  the  annual  con- 
ferences were  enlarged.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
the  present  volume  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  con- 
temporaneously this  church  has  been  taking  a  more 
and  more  aggressive  stand  on  measures  of  industrial 
justice  and  social  welfare.  This  was  also  true  of 
other  Protestant  churches  and  notably  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church ;  but  it  is  not  without  significance  that 
the  social  creed  of  the  churches,  adopted  by  the  Federal 
Council  on  behalf  of  some  thirty  evangelical  protestant 
bodies,  originated  in  the  Methodist  Federation  of  Social 
Service,  and  that  Bishop  McConnell  of  this  church 
was  chairman  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement's 
Commission  which  made  the  famous  report  on  condi- 
tions In  the  steel  Industry.  No  doubt  from  other  re- 
ligious bodies  equally  striking  Illustrations  could  be 
cited  of  the  success  of  financial  campaigns  Inspired  by 
faith  in  a  great  cause  and  characterized  by  the  diligent 
application  of  sound  principles  of  organization,  both 


292  Social  Work 

to  the  general  plan  and  to  the  details.  In  accordance 
with  its  own  genius  and  traditions,  the  Roman  Catholic 
church  created  associations  of  charities  in  some  of  its 
most  important  diocesan  jurisdictions,  and  also  a 
National  Catholic  Welfare  Council,  and  through  these 
and  other  means  greatly  enlarged  its  financial  resources 
for  social  work.  The  Red  Cross  Roll  Call  and  the 
Christmas  Seal  Sales  of  the  Tuberculosis  Association 
are  familiar  examples  of  modified  drives  on  a  national 
scale,  repeated  with  striking  even  if  somewhat  fluctuat- 
ing success  year  after  year. 

FINANCIAL   FEDERATION 

During  the  war  an  idea  which  was  not  entirely  new, 
since  in  a  primitive  form  it  had  long  been  in  operation 
in  Denver  and  in  a  much  more  developed  plan  for  a 
time  in  Cleveland,  was  applied  on  a  large  scale  in  many 
cities.  This  was  the  idea  of  a  common  financing  of 
the  voluntary  agencies  through  what  was  variously 
known  as  a  War  Chest  or  Patriotic  Fund  or  Com- 
munity Chest  or  Community  Fund.  In  some  cases  the 
war  chest  financed  only  the  patriotic  or  war  relief 
funds.  In  others  they  included  the  principal  local 
charities.  In  still  others  the  war  chest  gave  some 
assistance  to  local  agencies  from  its  surplus.  More 
important  than  any  such  direct  grants  of  money  was 
the  stimulus  which  the  example  of  the  war  chests  gave 
to  the  idea  of  uniting  the  financial  campaigns  of  the 
social  agencies  and  entrusting  them  to  a  permanent  rep- 


Finances:  II  293 

resentative  federation  or  union  of  which  all  should 
be  members  and  through  which  there  should  gradually 
evolve  a  community  program  of  social  work. 

In  Cleveland,  Detroit,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  Grand 
Rapids,  and  many  other  cities,  federations  of  this  kind 
were  created,  not  on  any  uniform  model,  but  embody- 
ing in  various  ways  the  central  conception  that  the 
social  agencies  have  common  interests,  not  only  financial 
but  of  many  other  kinds,  which  justify — or  indeed, 
as  soon  as  they  are  understood,  logically  compel  their 
association  in  a  welfare  federation.  This  is  not  in 
the  least  like  a  consolidation  in  which  the  individual 
agencies  disappear,  but  neither  is  it  a  mere  conference 
for  discussion.  Among  the  important  functions  which 
may  be  delegated  to  such  a  federation  is  that  which  the 
war  chests  performed  for  their  constituents,  the  raising 
of  funds.  This  concentration  of  finances  has  many 
advantages.  If  the  method  of  intensive  campaigns  is 
utilized,  it  substitutes  one  campaign  for  many,  with 
much  saving  of  expense  and  great  relief  to  the  public. 
It  permits  a  comprehensive  organization  for  this  cam- 
paign, whether  it  is  a  brief  and  intensive  drive  or  more 
deliberate  and  extended.  In  such  an  organization  the 
ablest  and  best  qualified  citizens  may  easily  be  enlisted, 
since  it  is  for  the  whole  city,  without  religious  or  politi- 
cal or  institutional  distinctions.  On  the  financial  side 
of  the  work  of  such  a  federation  there  are  two  dis- 
tinct functions  to  be  performed :  the  establishment  of 
the  budget  and  the  raising  of  the  fund.    The  former  is 


294  Social  Work 

a  delicate  and  responsible,  but  not — as  might  have 
been  imagined  in  advance — an  impossible  one.  Each 
agency  prepares  and  submits  to  a  carefully  selected 
budget  committee  an  estimate  of  the  amount  v^hich  it 
requires.  There  is  a  hearing,  in  which  opportunity  is 
given  to  explain  and  defend  the  budget.  Suggestions 
may  be  made  as  to  possible  economies  or  readjustments. 
Expenditures  for  particular  purposes  are  compared 
with  those  of  other  agencies  which  have  comparable 
items  of  expense.  Common  standards  of  salaries  may 
be  established  if  this  is  considered  advisable.  The 
federation  does  not,  if  it  is  wise,  undertake  to  decide 
internal,  domestic  policies  of  any  agency  member,  but 
it  gives  an  opportunity  for  those  questions  which  con- 
cern the  common  welfare  to  be  decided  in  accordance 
with  a  common  judgment  based  on  common  knowledge 
and  open  discussion. 

The  general  budget  is  made  up  of  these  several  esti- 
mates, due  allowance  having  been  made  for  prospective 
earnings,  income  from  endowments,  anticipated  appro- 
priations from  city,  county,  or  state,  balances  on  hand 
either  in  current  or  in  reserve  funds.  The  budget  has 
generally  to  be  approved  by  larger  board,  which  has 
somewhat  the  character  of  a  representative  legislative 
assembly,  to  which  it  is  presented  by  the  budget  com- 
mittee. Those  whose  estimates  have  been  unduly  re- 
duced or  changed  by  the  budget  committee  or  who 
have  other  grievances  may  appeal  to  this  legislative 
assembly.     If  their  grievances  are  not  redressed  they 


Finances:  II  295 

may  always  withdraw  from  the  federation  and  collect 
their  funds  independently;  although  in  a  city  which 
has  become  accustomed  to  federated  giving  they  may 
find  this  up-hill  work. 

After  the  adoption  of  the  budget  the  responsibility 
passes  to  the  campaign  organization.  Very  different 
capacities  are  required  here  from  those  which  have  been 
appropriate  in  the  budget  hearings  and  adjustments. 
What  is  necessary  is  to  present  the  program  of  social 
work  to  the  entire  citizenry,  to  convince  them  of  its 
needs,  to  arouse  the  public  sympathy,  to  induce  every 
possible  contributor  to  give,  not  according  to  the  old 
saying  "until  it  hurts,"  but,  as  the  president  of  one 
federation  happily  expressed  it,  "until  it  feels  good." 
For  a  city-wide  campaign,  made  once  a  year,  the  news- 
papers will  give  space,  the  merchants  their  display 
windows,  the  churches  their  pulpits,  the  theatres  their 
stages,  the  lunching  clubs  their  attention  between 
courses,  the  factories  a  part  of  their  intermission.  The 
appeal  will  have  a  variety  of  human  interest  to  touch 
every  sympathetic  chord.  The  citizen's  pride  will  be 
enlisted.  The  element  of  competitive  emulation  is  not 
lacking. 

The  federations  have  not  been  in  operation  long 
enough,  nor  have  they  been  sufficiently  general,  to 
afford  solid  ground  for  prediction  as  to  their  per- 
manence or  their  adaptability  to  all  conditions.  They 
have,  however.  In  a  score  of  cities,  and  In  a  few  of 
them  for  some  ten  years,  demonstrated  that  such  co- 


296  Social  Work 

operation  in  finances  is  advantageous.  They  have 
greatly  increased  the  number  of  givers  and  the  total 
amount  raised,  without  corresponding  increase  of  cost. 
They  have  made  the  social  work  of  their  cities  more 
intelligent.  They  have  promoted  understanding  of  the 
broad  elementary  facts  in  regard  to  social  needs  and 
how  to  meet  them.  This  can  of  course  be  done  in 
other  ways  and,  whether  federated  in  finances  or  not, 
the  social  agencies  have  a  primary  obligation  to  engage 
individually  and  jointly  in  the  education  of  the  public 
in  regard  to  the  causes  of  poverty,  disease,  and  crime 
and  the  means  of  relief  and  prevention. 

BETTER  FINANCIAL   METHODS  AND  POLICIES 

Financial  federation  has  given  an  impetus  to  the 
demand  for  better  accounting  methods  and  for  the 
independent  audit  of  institutional  accounts.  This  im- 
provement, however,  was  well  under  way  in  many  places 
before  the  federation  movement  began.  It  should  be 
regarded  rather  as  the  result  of  better  administrative 
and  financial  standards  in  general  than  as  a  result  of 
federation;  although  it  is  true  that  without  careful 
financial  records  and  budgeting  federation  in  financial 
campaigns  would  be  impracticable.  The  influence  of 
the  profession  of  the  public  accountant  has  shown 
itself  in  the  social  agencies  as  in  business  and  in  educa- 
tional enterprises. 

Allied  to  the  efiiciency  which  results  from  better 
accounting  is  that  which  lies  in  the  demand   for  less 


Finances:  II  297 

extravagant  and  showy  construction  and  for  competent 
expert  service.  It  has  been  found  that  for  the  care 
of  tuberculosis  patients  an  inexpensive  shack  may 
give  as  good  results  as  an  imposing  and  costly  building. 
For  sick  children  a  modest  cottage  with  a  few  patients 
may  be  a  much  better  place  than  a  large  and  expensive 
hospital.  The  war  has  made  building  expensive,  and 
along  with  its  severe  lessons  of  sacrifice  and  economy 
it  has  unfortunately  encouraged  reckless  wastes.  Vol- 
untary self-sacrificing  work  enormously  increased,  but 
incidentally  even  this  resulted  in  some  instances  in 
wasteful  extravagance  through  lack  of  knowledge. 

Salaries  of  paid  social  workers  have  properly  and 
necessarily  increased,  but  not  always  consistently,  and 
the  overhauling  and  reconstruction  of  policies  in  the 
social  agencies  will  raise  questions  as  to  the  propriety 
and  necessity  of  the  readjustment  of  salaries  as  of  other 
expenses.  Social  work  has  the  same  need  as  education 
or  industry  for  adequate  salaries,  sufficient  to  maintain 
a  reasonable  standard  of  living  for  the  workers,  and 
the  same  obligation  to  supervise  its  finances  rigidly 
and  to  eliminate  waste  and  extravagance. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
PREPARATION  FOR  SOCIAL  WORK 


If  the  preceding  pages  have  succeeded  at  all  in  mak- 
ing clear  the  character  of  social  work  it  is  evident  that 
it  requires  qualifications  of  no  mean  order  in  the  men 
and  women  who  do  it.  Sympathy  for  those  who  are 
in  trouble  and  a  desire  to  help  them  are  as  important 
in  the  paid  pr  unpaid  social  worker  of  to-day  as  they 
ever  were,  but  they  can  no  longer  be  considered  all- 
sufficient,  as  they  were  not  so  many  years  ago,  Deal- 
ing as  it  does  with,  the  very  fabric  of  human  lives  and 
the  weak  spots  in  human  institutions,  social  work  has 
need  of  the  highest  degrees  of  native  intelligence  and 
acquired  wisdom. 

GENERAL  AND  TECHNICAL  QUALIFICATIONS 

Qualifications  for  social  work,  as  for  other  callings, 
may  be  either  general  or  technical.  Among  successful 
engineers,  according  to  the  composite  judgment  of 
seven  thousand  of  them  who  answered  an  inquiry  made 
by  the  Carnegie  Foundation,  it  appears  that  "general 
qualifications"  account  for  75  per  cent  of  success  in 
that  profession,  and  "technical  qualifications"   for  25 

298 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  ^     299 

per  cent.  Under  general  qualifications  were  included 
character,  which  is  put  down  at  24  per  cent,  or  nearly 
one-third  of  the  general  characteristics;  judgment,  at 
19^  per  cent;  efficiency,  at  16)^  per  cent;  and  under- 
standing of  human  beings,  at  15  per  cent.  These  four 
items  make  up  the  three-fourths  attributed  to  general 
qualities.  Character  is  interpreted  to  mean  integrity, 
responsibility,  resourcefulness,  and  initiative;  efficiency, 
to  mean  thoroughness,  accuracy,  promptness,  courtesy, 
and  industry;  judgment,  to  cover  both  common  sense 
and  scientific  attitude.  On  the  technical  side  the  25  per 
cent  is  subdivided :  knowledge  of  the  fundamentals 
of  the  science  having  15  per  cent,  or  three-fifths  of 
the  credit,  and  mere  technique  of  the  science  ten  per 
cent,  or  two-fifths.  Without  attaching  too  much  im- 
portance to  these  exact  percentages,  or  assuming  that 
a  tabulation  of  the  opinions  of  successful  social  workers 
would  yield  identical  results,  we  may  at  least  be  reason- 
ably sure  that  social  work  is  not  more  highly  technical 
than  engineering,  and  that  what  are  described  in  the 
study  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  as  general  character- 
istics and  as  fundamentals  of  the  science — accounting 
together  for  ninety  per  cent  of  the  qualifications  of  the 
engineer — are  relatively  quite  as  important  in  social 
work. 

COLLEGE  TRAINING  AND  GENERAL    PREPARATION 

Colleges  and  universities,  building  on  whatever  their 
students  bring  with  them,   have  a  responsibility   for 


300  Social  Work 

adding  to  their  general  qualifications :  to  their  charac- 
ter, judgment,  efficiency,  and  understanding.  If,  as 
the  engineers'  report  finds,  these  cover  three  quar- 
ters of  what  mining,  mechanical,  electrical,  and  civil 
engineers  require  for  success,  it  is  certain  that  social 
workers  cannot  afford  to  under-value  the  studies  which 
may  contribute  to  such  endowments.  What  are  these 
studies  ?  All  that  give  breadth  to  the  mind,  emancipate 
it  from  crippling  conceits  and  prejudices ;  that  add  to  th^ 
materials  of  thought  and  to  the  power  of  discrimination. 
The  scientific  attitude  is  the  natural  result  of  association, 
in  research  and  discussion,  with  those  who  have  it. 
Common  sense  may  be  developed  in  historical  studies  or 
in  the  appreciative  reading  of  poetry  or  the  analysis  of 
economic  problems.  Understanding  of  human  beings 
may  be  gained  anywhere — at  home,  on  the  street,  or  in 
fraternities;  but  it  may  be  refined,  confirmed,  or  cor- 
rected in  the  study  of  psychology  and  of  sociology. 
IWhat  the  social  worker  requires  in  the  way  of  general 
preparation  is  knowledge  and  the  capacity  for  using  it, 
and  the  more  he  knows — provided  he  keeps  a  sense  of 
proportion — the  better  his  professional  equipment. 
Integrity  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  are  pre-requis- 
ite,  but  even  these  may  be  fortified.  Resourcefulness 
and  initiative  are  to  be  cultivated,  and  the  college 
studies  may  well  have  these  ends  in  view.  What  they 
must  do,  however,  or  miserably  fail,  is  to  cultivate 
the  habit  of  study,  of  pleasurable  exercise  of  the  mental 
faculties,  of  reading  and  observation  and  intellectual 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  301 

conversation.  All  studies  which  have  this  result  are 
profitable.  Nothing  of  human  interest  can  lie  outside 
the  range  of  the  general  preparation  of  one  who  is  to 
find  his  work  in  correcting  the  faults,  supplying  the 
deficiencies,  meeting  the  needs,  protecting  the  standards, 
lightening  the  burdens,  adding  to  the  joys  of  human 
beings. 

COLLEGE    TEACHING    OF    THE    FUNDAMENTALS    OF 

SOCIAL  WORK 

But  the  college  may  do  more  than  develop  the  gen- 
eral qualifications.  Following  their  long  practice  of 
giving  to  a  large  proportion  of  their  students — those, 
for  example,  who  become  teachers,  business  men,  or 
housewives — an  opportunity  to  learn  something  about 
the  fundamentals  of  their  profession,  they  are  now 
inevitably  and  properly  considering  what  they  can  do, 
even  in  their  undergraduate  courses,  to  prepare  students 
for  usefulness  in  social  work.  They  can  at  least  deal 
with  those  fundamentals  which  all  citizens  should  know 
about — those  facts  about  human  nature,  the  essentials 
to  a  normal  life,  the  nature  and  extent  of  poverty, 
disease,  and  crime,  and  the  character  of  current  social 
work,  remedial  and  preventive — which  will  suggest  to 
them  where  their  interest  lies  and  the  field  in  which 
they  may  wish  to  engage  as  volunteers,  and  which  will 
help  them  to  decide  where  they  will  place  their  finan- 
cial contributions  and  what   attitude   they   shall  take 


302  Social  Work 

toward  public  policies.  Social  wOrk  is  not  a  closed 
trade  or  profession.  On  the  contrary,  it  courts  the 
widest  possible  diffusion  of  acquaintance  with  its  prin- 
ciples. Much  of  the  wisdom  which  it  garners  should  be- 
come the  common  property  of  all  educated  or  partly 
educated  people,  rather  than  the  exclusive  professional 
equipment  of  a  limited  group.  There  is  nothing  occult 
or  esoteric  about  the  principles  and  methods  of  social 
work  which  would  make  this  inherently  impracticable, 
and  it  is  easy  to  see  progress  in  this  direction. 

RELATION   TO  ITS  BASIC   SCIENCES 

Social  work  is  sometimes  thought  of  as  applied  soci- 
ology. So  it  is,  but  it  is  none  the  less  applied  economics, 
applied  psychology,  and  many  other  branches  of  knowl- 
edge applied  to  the  task  of  studying  and  improving 
social  conditions.  Sociology  studies  the  laws  of  human 
society  as  a  naturally  developing  group  of  conscious 
beings,*  explains  social  phenomena  in  simple  terms, 
traces  the  origins  of  social  institutions,  and  on  its 
historical  side  seeks  out  "those  universal  or  constant 
portions  of  ever  repeated  history  that  admit  of  exam- 
ination by  scientific  methods."!  Economics  is  the 
science  of  man  in  relation  to  wealth.  It  deals  with 
wants  and  their  satisfaction  through  the  production  and 
consumption  of  goods,  i.  e.,  commoditites  and  service. t 


*  Giddings  :     Principles  of  Sociology. 
t  Giddings  :     Inductive  Sociology. 
$  Seagcr  :     Introduction  to  Economics. 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  303 

Psychology  is  the  science  of  consciousness.  It  deals 
with  human  behavior,  with  instincts  and  habits  and' 
manners ;  and  social  psychology  treats  of  the  principles 
involved  in  those  expressions  of  mental  life  which  take 
form  in  social  relations,  organizations,  and  practices,* 
'  Biology,  physiology,  geography,  history,  and  the 
applied  sciences  of  sanitation  and  engineering,  may 
be  named  especially  among  the  sources  from  which  we 
derive  ideas  and  knowledge  of  value  in  social  work. 
There  is  scarcely  any  department  of  human  knowledge 
which  will  not  have  its  quota  of  available  material 
for  the  social  worker  w^ho  is  qualified  to  apply  it.  Social 
work  appropriates  from  all  sources  whatever  will  be 
useful  in  the  rescue  of  individuals  or  the  amelioration 
of  adverse  working  or  living  conditions.  Evidently, 
therefore,  it  is  not  only  the  courses  on  social  work,  but 
all  studies  which  deal  with  useful  knowledge,  that  pre- 
pare for  social  work.  Nevertheless,  courses  in  social 
work  have  their  particular  function,  and  a  most  impor- 
tant one.  The  fundamentals  of  law  and  medicine  are 
often  recommended  as  valuable  disciplines  for  those 
who  do  not  intend  to  practice  them.  The  fundamentals 
of  social  work  may  be  recommended  with  confidence, 
precisely  because  it  is  highly  desirable  that  all  should 
practice  them.  They  are  interesting,  and  they  are  of 
general  concern.  Social  work,  then,  is  an  entirely 
appropriate  subject  for  undergraduate  instruction.  It 
is  the  general  experience  that  courses  dealing  with  social 


*  Angell :     Psychology. 


304  Social  Work 

problems,  whether  called  applied  sociology  or  by  any 
other  name,  are  in  eager  demand  wherever  they  are 
offered  and  competently  conducted. 

INCREASE    OF    TEACHING    MATERIAL 

Twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  when  courses  in  char- 
ities and  correction  were  first  offered  in  American  uni- 
versities, teaching  material  was  comparatively  scarce. 
While  they  began  well,  it  was  sometimes  difficult  to  sus- 
tain the  interest  w'hich  they  aroused.  There  is  now — in 
the  reports  of  governmental  departments  and  commis- 
sions, institutions,  foundations,  and  societies,  in  special 
periodicals  and  text-books — an  abundance  of  such  ma- 
terial. It  is  possible  to  study  the  social  aspects  of 
epidemic  and  other  diseases,  insanity,  mental  defect 
and  nervous  disorders,  over-work,  child  labor,  con- 
gestion of  population,  unsanitary  housing,  an  antiquated 
prison  system,  either  historically  or  descriptively,  with- 
out being  led  astray  by  sensational  or  superficial  ac- 
counts. 

COURSES  IN  SOCIAL  WORK 

The  analytical  study  of  the  conditions  which  create 
social  problems,  and  of  the  remedial  and  preventive 
social  work  to  which  these  conditions  give  rise,  is  the 
natural  starting  point  of  college  and  university  instruc- 
tion in  social  work.  The  chapters  in  Parts  II — ^V  of 
the  present  volume  will  suggest  what  these  conditions 
and  problems  are  and  the  principal  agencies  which  are 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  305 

dealing  with  them.  Instruction  will  if  possible  include 
visits  to  these  agencies;  examination  of  their  records, 
under  proper  conditions  to  protect  confidential  infor- 
mation; a  study  of  their  methods  and  of  any  recent 
developments  or  changes  in  them;  comparison  of  dif- 
ferent agencies  which  to  any  extent  deal  with  the  same 
or  similar  problems;  the  setting  up  of  standards  or 
criteria  by  which  their  efficiency  may  be  estimated; 
consideration  of  the  extent  to  which,  quantitatively, 
they  fulfill  their  purpose;  sympathetic  scrutiny  of 
the  obstacles  w^iich  they  encounter — financial,  political, 
or  personal;  and  above  all,  an  attempt  to  get  a  sharp, 
clear,  lasting  impression  of  the  actual  purpose  and 
function  of  each  organization,  so  that  its  name  will 
thereafter  stand  for  this  definite  impression — to  be 
supplemented  and  modified  if  necessary  by  other  im- 
pressions— and  of  the  degree  in  which  the  existing 
social  agencies  meet,  or  fail  to  meet,  the  existing  social 
problems. 

While  such  a  course  dealing  concurrently  with  social 
problems  and  social  work  in  American  communities 
would  not  be  primarily  a  statistical  study,  it  would  of 
course  make  use  of  the  available  statistical  material, 
acquainting  students  with  the  main  sources  of  infor- 
mation, both  government  reports  and  private  surveys 
and  investigations,  about  the  nature  and  extent  of 
the  more  important  social  problems.  It  would  take 
into  account  rural  as  well  as  urban  communities.  In 
some  instances  students  in  this  course  might  partici- 


306  Social  Work 

pate  in  local  surveys  of  social  conditions,  but  under- 
graduate students  will  usually  get  more  profit  from 
carefully  arranged  visits  to  social  agencies  than  from 
the  kind  of  field  work  which  takes  them  individually 
into  homes  or  imposes  upon  them  prematurely  the 
delicate  responsibilities  arising  from  contact  with  fam- 
ilies in  trouble.  The  primary  object  of  this  instruction 
is  not  merely  to  give  information,  which  is  only  the 
raw  material  of  learning,  but  to  make  clear  the  nature 
of  the  problems  and  to  cultivate  in  the  student  the 
critical  faculty;  to  lay  the  foundation  for  just  estimates 
of  policies  and  methods  in  dealing  with  the  particular 
problems    involved. 

HISTORICAL    BACKGROUND 

Either  before  or  after  the  current  social  problems  and 
social  work,  or  even  contemporaneously,  the  history 
of  social  ideals  and  relations  in  ancient,  medieval,  and 
modern  nations  might  profitably  be  studied.  The 
historical  background  of  social  work  is  fully  as  import- 
ant as  its  current  operations,  and  the  neglect  of  this 
historical  background  is  the  sufficient  explanation  of 
much  that  is  superficial — even  if  pseudo-professional 
and  pseudo-scientific — in  the  social  work  of  the  present 
generation. 

Serious  thought  about  human  welfare  did  not  begin 
the  day  before  yesterday.  The  ancient  Jews  under- 
stood the  difference  between  justice  and  charity,  and 
what  was  implied  in  a  decent  respect  for  the  personality 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  307 

of  the  poor;  and  their  prophets  had  a  fundamentally 
sound  conception  of  social  ethics.  Plato  dealt  courage- 
ously, even  if  not  finally,  with  problems  which  are 
pressing  to-day  and  which  we  shrink  from  discussing. 
The  Roman  family  and  the  Roman  civil  law  are  integ- 
ral parts  of  the  social  heritage  of  modern  western  na- 
tions, and  familiarity  with  them  is  essential  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  modern  family  and  even  of  our  own 
statutory  laws.  The  idea  of  service  and  all-embracing 
charity  is  best  studied  where  it  was  most  completely 
and  beautifully  exhibited — not  in  the  vagrancy  laws 
of  Elizabeth  or  the  poor  law  reforms  of  the  30's,  but 
in  the  early  years  of  Christianity.  Medieval  charity 
is  an  essential  element  in  modern  social  work,  and  it 
becomes  intelligible  in  the  teachings  and  labors  of  St. 
Bernard,  St.  Francis,  and  St.  Thomas.  Both  monastic- 
ism  and  scholasticism  are  landmarks  in  the  history 
of  the  attempt  to  reach  fundamentals  in  helpful  social 
relations.  The  Protestant  Reformation  and  the  secular 
organization  of  relief  which  accompanied  it,  the  devel- 
opment of  municipal  and  state  systems  of  dealing  with 
pauperism,  have  an  intimate  relation  to  modern  public 
relief  and  voluntary  secular  charity.  The  radical  flow- 
ering of  proposals  of  the  revolutionary  period,  some 
of  which  are  realized,  marks  the  transition  to  nine- 
teenth century  problems.  If  the  historical  course 
occupies  an  academic  year,  this  might  close  the  first 
half  of  it. 

The  second  half  might  be  devoted  to  the  develop- 


308  Social  Work 

nient  of  social  work  in  the  United  States,*  with  appro- 
priate attention  to  contemporaneous  movements  in 
European  countries :  such  as  factory  legislation  and  the 
reform  of  the  poor  law  in  England;  the  Elberfeld 
System  and  social  insurance  in  Germany ;  the  develop- 
ment, in  France,  of  voluntary  and  especially  of  religious 
agencies,  modified  by  the  conflict  with  a  radical  secular- 
ism. The  review  of  American  developments  should 
include  the  great  social  movements  of  the  nineteenth 
century — for  the  restriction  and  abolition  of  slavery, 
for  the  promotion  of  temperance  and  later  the  establish- 
ment of  prohibiton,  for  free  general  education,  and  for 
"woman's  rights" ;  the  methods  by  which  the  colonists 
dealt  with  the  problems  of  dependence  and  crime;  the 
introduction  of  the  English  system  of  out-door  relief 
in  the  northern  states ;  the  place  of  slavery  in  the  south- 
ern states;  the  creation  of  the  almshouse  as  a  reform 
institution,  and  the  gradual  evolution  from  it  of  various 
specialized  institutions — for  the  insane,  for  children, 
for  the  deaf  and  the  blind,  the  feeble-minded,  acutely 
sick,  tuberculous,  and  so  on;  the  formation  of  private 
societies  of  various  kinds;  the  attempt  at  co-ordination 
of  relief  which  was  made  by  the  Associations  for 
Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  in  the  40's;  the 
creation  of  official  boards  for  supervision  in  the  70's; 
the  charity  organization  movement  of  the  80's;  the 


*  A  volume  on  The  Story  of  Social  Work  in  America  will 
be  included  in  The  Social  Welfare  Library,  and  is  now  in 
preparation. 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  309 

settlement  movement  of  the  90's;  and  the  educational 
and  preventative  movements  of  the  past  three  decades.* 

GRADUATE   PROFESSIONAL   TRAINING 

The  suggestions  thus  far  made  are  intended  to  apply 
equally  to  students  who  are  looking  forward  to  social 
work  as  a  career  and  to  those  who  have  an  interest  in 
it  merely  as  a  subject  of  general  education.  Those  who 
expect  to  engage  in  social  work  professionally  will 
naturally  wish  to  have  a  larger  amount  of  such  instruc- 
tion and  will  select,  more  consistently  than  others,  even 
from  the  beginning  of  their  college  study,  the  courses 
which  have  a  bearing  on  such  preparation. 

A  graduate  school  of  social  service  offering  a  one 
year  or  a  two  year  professional  course  would  aim  to 
give  technical  preparation  for  one  or  more  of  the  sev- 
eral recognized  kinds  of  social  work.  Students  who 
have  not  had  the  undergraduate  courses  above  outlined 
should  take  them  as  a  part  of  their  professional  graduate 
training.  When  it  comes  to  the  technical  courses  in 
social  work,  we  may  jdistinguish  two  radically  different 
ways  of  approaching  the'  decision  as  to  what  the  content 
of  such  courses  should  be.  One  tendency  is  to  isolate 
distinct  processes  in  the  different  kinds  of  social  work 
now  in  operation.  The  technique  of  these  processes 
then   becomes   the    subject   of    instruction,    regardless 


*  A  compact  review  of  the  main  developments  since  1900  may- 
be found  in  a  pamphlet  published  by  The  Frontier  Press:  Ameri- 
can Social  Work  in  the  Tzventicth  Century,  by  Edward  T.  Devine 
and  Lilian   Brandt. 


310  Social  Work 

of  the  agency  engaged  in  them  or  the  need  which  the 
agency  is  trying  to  meet.  We  might  thus  have  courses 
on  the  technique  of  social  diagnosis,  the  tech- 
nique of  treatment,  the  technique  of  research,  the  tech- 
nique of  organization,  quite  divorced  from  any  con- 
sideration of  the  purposes  of  the  agencies  which  make 
use  of  such  diagnosis,  treatment,  research,  or  organ- 
ization, or  of  the  larger  aspects  of  the  evils  which  have 
given  rise  to  the  agencies.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  there  is  yet,  or  is  likely  to  be,  enough  crystal- 
lized "technique"  in  social  work  to  make  it  desirable 
that  such  courses  should  form  a  large  part  of  the  cur- 
riculum; and  there  is  a  positive  danger  of  promoting 
mediocre  uniformity  and  rigidity,  and  discouraging 
open-minded  experimentation,  by  over-emphasizing 
the  value  of  methods  which  have  been  tried  and  have 
had  a  measure  of  success,  by  formulating  and  teaching 
rules  for  action  in  situations  which  almost  inevitably 
will  contain  incalculable  elements  and  combinations. 

The  other  approach  would  not  be,  as  might  hastily 
be  inferred,  that  of  a  mere  apprenticeship  in  which  the 
novice  would  learn  by  imitation  or  demonstration  how 
to  do  particular  things  in  a  highly  specialized  field, 
without  reference  to  general  principles.  This,  of  course, 
would  not  deserve  to  be  called  professional  training. 
The  alternative  to  a  subtle  and  artificial  over-refine- 
ment of  technique  would  be  based  on  the  idea  that  prog- 
ress in  social  work  lies  in  regarding  and  treating  as 
a  unit  all  the  varied  forms  of  it  which  are  carried  on 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  311 

to  the  same  end,  which  deal  with  the  same  problems, 
rather  than  the  processes  or  operations,  more  or  less 
similar,  which  may  be  found  scattered  through  the  var- 
ious fields ;  in  synthesizing  efforts,  and  relating  them  to 
their  object,  rather  than  in  isolating  and  re-grouping 
processes. 

The  student  should  therefore  be  expected  to  choose 
for  specialization — after  he  has  acquired  such  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  entire  field  as  has  been  emphasized--^ 
not  a  process,  such  as  case-work,  but  one  or  more  of 
the  departments  of  social  work,  and  his  entire  time 
might  be  spent  in  intensive  study  of  his  chosen  subject, 
including  a  suitable  amount  of  field  practice.  These 
larger  departments  are  : — 

I.     General  Relief  :    Family  Welfare  and  De- 
pendent Adults. 

11.     Child  Welfare. 

III.  Care  of  the  Sick  and   Plandicapped  and 

Prevention  of  Disease. 

IV.  Treatment  of   Offenders   and   Prevention 

of  Crime. 

V.     Improvement  of  Working  Conditions. 

VI.     Improvement  of  Living  Conditions. 

This  division,  while  subject  to  modification  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  demands  of  students,  the  available 
teaching  staff,  and  other  circumstances,  has  the  advan- 


312  Social  Work 

tage  of  using  terms  that  are  familiar.     It  corresponds 
roughly  to  the  great  social  problems  which,  although 
not  mutually  exclusive,  are  nevertheless  fairly  distinct : 
poverty,  disease,  crime,  industrial  exploitation  and  mal- 
adjustment, exploitation  of  tenants  and  consumers.    In 
the  last  of  these  fields  there  is  less  unity  than  in  the 
others,  but  still  there  is  a  family  relationship  in  the 
problems  of  the  settlements,  neighborhood  associations, 
recreation  commissions,   housing  committees,   and  of 
those  who  are  striving  to  improve  markets  or  other- 
wise protect  standards  of  living.     This  field,  if  desired, 
could  be  divided:  for  example,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
separate  those  which  originate  in  a  problem  of  exploita- 
tion from  those  which  do  not.     Work  for  children  is 
collected  from  the  other  groups  and  distinguished  from 
work  for  the  family  unit  for  the  practical  reason  that 
that  is  the  way  it  is  now  thought  of.     In  all  forms  of 
work  for  children,  the  tendency  is  to  regard  the  state 
of  childhood  as  the  controlling  factor,  whatever  the 
accidental  circumstance  that  brings  the  child  to  atten- 
tion, and  to  transform  it  all  into  "child  welfare"  work, 
rather  than  to  treat  it  as  correction  or  relief  or  pro- 
tection.    The  first  four  groups  all  have  the  two-fold 
aspect  of  support  or  care  of  some  sort  of  individual, 
and  attack  on  the  social  causes  back  of  the  individual's 
need.      They   are  both   remedial  or   disciplinary,   and 
educational  or  preventive.     The   fifth  and   sixth  are 
primarily  educational  and  preventive,  but  they  too  in- 
clude more  or  less  "case-work,"  and  the  social  worker 


Preparation  for  Social  Work  313 

in  those  fields  needs  to  know  the  fundamentals  of 
investigation  and  treatment  as  practiced  in  child  welfare 
and  home  service. 

Breadth  of  knowledge  and  abiUty  to  reason  clearly, 

c^i^^^r\U^    for    rprogniyincr    n     f f^rt^anrMntprprptinp-   if,    n. 

"s^^Wd~m!Ahict  f ^r  dftrrting-  fraud  "and  fqll^t^y,  th^Z 
protection  of  common  sense  agamst  plausible  absurdi- 
ties, and  a  quick  understanding  such  as  springs  from 
human  sympathy  and  good-will,  are  among  the  neces- 
sary characteristics  of  the  successful  social  worker. 
A  vocational  course  may  properly  be  directed  con- 
sciously toward  the  development  of  all  these  qualities. 
With  this  in  view,  the  great  masterpieces  in  the  litera- 
ture of  all  languages  may  well  be  drawn  upon  as  a 
part  of  the  required  or  suggested  reading  in  a  profes- 
sional course  of  this  kind.  The  most  profound  reflec- 
tions on  social  relations  are  often  to  be  found  in  the 
poets,  the  essayists,  and  the  scholars,  in  the  religious 
prophets  and  the  philosophers,  rather  than  in  our  techni- 
cal literature,  useful  as  this  is  for  purposes  of  instruc- 
tion. Leaders  in  social  work  must  be  prepared  through 
scholarship  and  the  infectious  influence  of  leaders. 

To  these  fundamentals  one  other — that  which  we 
have  discussed  at  length — is  to  be  added :  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  one  or  more  of  the  specific  kinds  of 
social  work,  both  of  the  problems  with  which  it  deals 
and  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  in  the  past  and  are 
now  being  made  to  solve  them.  This  is  the  ten  per 
cent  of  technical  knowledge,  as  distinct  from  the  funda- 


314  Social  Work 

mentals  of  social  work  as  a  whole  and  the  general 
characteristics  of  character,  efficiency,  judgment,  under- 
standing of  human  beings,  which,  as  far  as  preliminary- 
study  can  do  it,  will  prepare  for  usefulness  in  social 
work. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  FUTURE  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 


Hospitals,  dispensaries,  homes  for  aged  and  infirm, 
child  welfare  agencies,  and  many  other  kinds  of  social 
work,  are  in  the  United  States  partly  governmental 
activities,  supported  by  taxation  and  managed  by  public 
officials,  and  partly  private  activities,  supported  by 
voluntary  contributions  and  managed  by  boards  of 
elected  managers  or  trustees  or  by  self -perpetuating 
boards.  Courts,  police,  prisons,  reformatories,  proba- 
tion commissions,  and  other  social  agencies  for  dealing 
with  crime,  are  for  the  most  part  governmental,  from 
the  nature  of  their  functions,  although  there  are  private 
reformatories  for  women  and  for  children,  generally 
imder  religious  auspices,  and  there  are  numerous  volun- 
tary agencies  which  are  occupied  with  one  or  another 
aspect  of  the  relation  of  society  to  the  criminal. 

FREEDOM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  INITIATIVE  :   ITS  RESULTS 

Complete  freedom  for  voluntary  initiative  in  all  de- 
partments of  social  welfare  has  been  the  American 
policy,  modified  only  by  the  practice  in  a  few  states  of 

315 


316  Social  Work 

conferring  on  some  such  body  as  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  the  responsibihty  for  deciding,  after  hearing 
and  investigation,  whether  a  charter  should  be  granted 
to  certain  kinds  of  agencies,  and  for  supervising  the 
work  of  certain  agencies — such  as  those  for  placing  out 
children — where  vital  interests  may  be  involved.  A 
charter  may  also  be  revoked  by  judicial  action  if  cor- 
porate powers  are  abused. 

While  this  freedom  of  initiative  has  led  to  com- 
petition and  over-lapping,  and  to  haphazard  growth 
of  institutions  and  activities,  it  has  on  the  whole  re- 
sulted in  some  sort  of  remedial  provision,  often  several 
sorts,  for  almost  every  conceivable  hardship.  The  re- 
sources of  some  agencies  have  been  inadequate  for  their 
ambitious  programs,  and  this  has  been  quite  as  true 
of  municipal,  county,  and  state  activities  as  of  the 
private  societies.  There  is,  for  example,  no  greater 
discrepancy  at  present  than  that  between  the  acknowl- 
edged responsibility  of  the  states  to  provide  for  the 
feeble-minded  and  the  wofully  inadequate  provision 
actually  made  for  them. 

The  test  of  social  work,  public  and  voluntary,  lies 
in  what  is  done  to  meet  the  crises  in  family  welfare. 
Home  service  is  a  field  so  varied  and  so  boundless  that 
it  is  never  fully  cultivated;  but  in  some  large  areas, 
especially  in  the  south-west,  and  also  in  rural  districts 
of  the  east,  there  is  an  entire  absence  of  agencies  for 
social  work.  Many  smaller  cities  and  towns  are  still 
without  any  efficient  resources.     In  many  places  it  is  a 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  317 

question  of  not  rcachir.g,  rather  than  of  over-lappin^^. 
How  shall  this  need  for  family  social  work  be  supplied? 

EXTENSION    OF    HOME    SERVICE 
THROUGH    SOCIETIES   FOR   FAMILY   WELFARE 

One  way  is  to  increase  the  number  and  at  the  same 
time  standardize  the  work  of  the  charity  organization 
societies  or  other  agencies,  whatever  name  they  may 
bear,  for  family  v/elfare.  This  is  the  purpose  of  the 
American  Association  for  Organizing  Family  Social 
Work  and  of  the  Charity  Organization  Department  of 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation.  These  voluntary  socie- 
ties are  everywhere  supported  by  a  small  fraction  of 
the  population  and  they  serve  another  small  fraction. 
This  is  true  of  all  social  work,  but  the  democratic, 
socializing  principle  demands  the  constant  substitution 
of  mutual  aid  for  philanthropic  aid;  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  public-spirited  act  into  the  civic  or  coopera- 
tive act.  In  their  campaigns  against  disease,  loan 
sharks,  or  overcrowding,  the  charity  organization  so- 
cieties or  associated  charities  may  rise  to  the  com- 
munity point  of  view,  but  in  their  individual  case-work 
they  do  not  often  escape,  and  from  the  nature  of 
their  financial  support  and  management  they  are  hardly 
able  to  escape,  from  the  class  distinction  between  the 
financially  comfortable  and  the  poor.  They  do  not 
make  appreciable  progress  in  making  themselves  un- 
necessary. 

In  the   process   of   liquidating  the   emergency  war 


318  Social  Work 

service  of  the  American  Red  Cross  the  proposal  was 
made  that  the  Home  Service  which  had  been  developed 
in  nearly  every  county  in  the  several  states  to  give 
patriotic  service  to  the  famihes  of  soldiers  and  sailors 
might  be  continued  as  centers  of  similar  home  service 
to  civiHans  in  general.  Objections  were  made  to  the 
general  extension  of  Red  Cross  Home  Service  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  be  competing  with  existing  volun- 
tary societies,  and  also  on  the  ground  that  it  might 
threaten  the  usefulness  of  the  Red  Cross  in  wars  or 
disasters.  There  is  still  nominally  a  policy  of  "extend- 
ing home  service"  to  civilian  famihes,  on  the  initiative 
of  the  local  chapter,  in  places  where  there  is  no  danger 
of  competition  with  established  relief  agencies,  on  the 
approval  of  Division  and  National  Headquarters. 
Whatever  is  done  in  this  direction  is  just  so  much  to 
the  good,  but  as  a  national  system  the  policy  was 
doomed  to  failure  from  the  moment  when  it  was  de- 
cided to  exclude  from  it  all  of  the  three  or  four  hun- 
dred larger  cities  and  towns,  largely  in  the  east  and 
north,  in  which  recognized  agencies  of  some  kind 
exist.  A  national  movement  from  which  the  more 
populous  centers  are  excluded — and  it  is  in  these  com- 
munities that  the  older  movement  for  organized  charity 
had  taken  root — is  anomalous  from  the  start.  If 
it  could  have  been  agreed,  in  all  these  larger  and 
wealthier  communities,  to  call  a  conference  to  create  a 
new  and  more  democratic  agency,  retaining  the  re- 
sources of  the  older  societies  and  the  interest  of  those 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  319 

who  had  been  active  in  them,  this  might  have  per- 
petuated the  vokmtary  basis  on  which  family  welfare 
work  has  been  so  largely  carried  on.  This  opportunity 
seems  to  have  been  lost. 

THROUGH   THE    CHURCHES 

The  question  might  be  raised  as  to  whether  the 
churches,  once  the  sole  recognized  institutions  for  the 
relief  of  poverty  as  well  as  the  chief  centers  of  educa- 
tion and  culture,  could  once  more  undertake  this  func- 
tion. Some  attempts  have  been  made  in  this  direction : 
for  example,  in  Bufifalo,  where  a  comprehensive  plan 
of  districting  the  city  and  assigning  each  district  to  a 
religious  organization  was  some  years  ago  inaugurated. 
The  church  district  plan  had  some  measure  of  success, 
and  is  still  utilized,  with  modifications;  but  neither  in 
Buffalo  nor  elsewhere*  has  there  been  any  such  exper- 
ience as  to  give  warrant  for  thinking  that  the  churches, 
under  existing  conditions  in  America,  are  any  better 
prepared  than  the  secular  agencies  to  assume  exclusive 
responsibility  for  family  rehabilitation  and  relief. 

THE    UNIQUE    FUNCTION    OF    RELIGION 

The  churches  have  indeed  e:?ctraordinary  advantages 
in  their  approach  to  the  problems  of  social  work  in 
families.  Their  approach  is  more  than  patriotic;  it  is 
catholic.  The  equality  of  all  men  in  respect  to  their 
sonship  of  a  common  father  is  more  than  democracy; 
it  is  brotherhood.     The  passion  for  rescuing  a  human 


320  Social  Work 

soul  from  destruction,  from  the  irreparable  tragedy  of 
a  deliberate  preference  for  evil,  is  the  strongest  motive 
which  the  history  of  human  relations  has  revealed. 
Parental  love,  romantic  attachment,  filial  affection,  ex- 
cept as  they  are  transformed  and  purified  by  religion, 
do  not  express  the  best  in  human  nature.  The  religious 
motive,  consistently  prompting  and  insisting  at  whatever 
cost  on  the  highest  and  best  for  those  whose  lives  we 
touch,  is  the  strongest  motive  conceivable  in  social  work. 

The  churches  inculcate  this  love  among  men.  Our 
infants  are  baptized  in  it.  Our  youth  are  instructed 
in  it.  Our  worship  exalts  it.  Our  solemn  covenants 
bind  us  to  its  exercise.  Our  sacraments  and  ceremonies 
and  rituals  are  designed  to  make  it  habitual  and  natural. 
The  churches  are  thus  the  best  of  all  agencies  for  ac- 
complishing those  disciplinary  and  remedial  and  con- 
solatory tasks  which  poverty,  illness,  and  crime  present. 
They  are  in  fact  everywhere  engaged  in  performing 
those  tasks.  Social  workers  who  ignore  this  are  blind 
to  their  most  obvious  and  powerful  allies.  The  spiritual 
resources  of  religion  are  simply  indispensable  in  social 
work.  Wherever  their  personal  membership  may  hap- 
pen to  be,  social  workers  might  well  demand  a  special 
standing  in  the  membership  in  the  churches  to  which 
their  families  belong. 

Two  obstacles  appear  on  the  side  of  the  churches  to 
their  taking  their  natural  place  in  relation  to  social 
work.  Some  churchmen  seek  to  draw  an  impossible 
line  between  religious  and  social  problems.   They  would 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  321 

have  the  church  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
low  incomes,  bad  housing,  epidemics,  and  the  like. 
They  would  have  it  concern  itself  only  with  sin  and 
redemption  as  personal  problems.  Others,  recognizing 
a  social  obligation,  content  themselves  with  developing 
institutional  features  within  the  church — orphan 
asylums,  hospitals,  homes  for  aged,  or  relief  funds — 
all  supported  and  controlled  within  the  church,  and  ex- 
panding to  whatever  dimensions  and  varieties  the  funds 
available  may  permit. 

Neither  of  these  policies  is  tenable  for  churches  which 
face  realities.  Co-operation  of  the  churches  with  the 
public  and  voluntary  agencies  for  social  work,  an- 
nexing them  all  for  the  promotion  of  the  good  life 
which  religion  inspires,  and  generously  pouring  out 
their  own  life  to  promote  the  legitimate  purposes  of 
the  social  agencies — religious  and  secular — is  the 
only  conceivable  way  of  dealing  successfully  with 
the  social  evils  of  which  both  churches  and  social 
agencies  are  well  aware.  The  churches  need  not 
provide  the  mechanics  of  social  work.  Whether 
in  a  particular  instance  institutional  activities  should 
or  should  not  be  under  the  direct  auspices  of  the 
church  is  a  question  of  expediency,  and  is  often  quite 
immaterial.  That  the  churches  should  permeate  and 
inspire  all  social  work  is  fundamental;  and  that  close 
practical  working  relations  should  be  cultivated  be- 
tween the  churches  and  the  unsectarian  and  official 
agencies  is  elementary. 


322  Social  Work 

SOCIAL  WORK  AND  THE  STATE 

Aside  from  the  churches  there  is  only  one  universal, 
democratic,  and  financially  competent  resource.  This 
is  the  state  itself.  Public  relief  has  always  been  an 
ultimate  resource.  Although  the  laws  in  American 
states  do  not  uniformly  recognize  what  in  England  is 
called  a  right  to  relief,  there  is  nevertheless  a  tacit  as- 
sumption that  any  kind  of  misfortune  which  threatens 
life  or  actual  physical  well-being  should  be  provided 
for;  and  that  if  relatives,  friends,  or  voluntary  agencies 
do  not  or  cannot  make  such  provision,  the  state  in  some 
way  must,  or  at  least  should,  do  so.  From  this  assump- 
tion there  has  been  developed  a  whole  series  of  public 
institutions  and  agencies,  many  of  them  by  a  process 
of  repeated  sub-division  from  the  old  undifferentiated 
almshouse. 

Public  provision  has  been  most  successful  for  those 
who  can  be  cared  for  most  advantageously  in  groups; 
for  those  who  need  control  or  restraint  of  some  kind 
as  well  as  maintenance  and  professional  treatment;  for 
those  whose  condition  warrants  either  permanent  or 
temporary  removal  from  their  homes,  whether  in  their 
own  interest  or  for  the  sake  of  others.  The  state  has 
however  gone  beyond  such  institutional  provision.  It 
has  very  generally  given  out-door  relief  in  the  form 
of  groceries,  fuel,  clothing,  and  sometimes  in  money. 
Of  late  mothers'  pensions  or  child  welfare  allowances 
have  become  common.    Children's  courts  have  extended 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  323 

their  functions  through  probation  officers  to  deal  with 
many  abnormal  family  situations.  Courts  of  domestic 
relations  have  also  assumed  responsibility  in  some  in- 
stances for  straightening  out  family  troubles,  even 
when  they  are  primarily  economic.  From  another 
direction  the  state  has  even  more  extensively  entered 
the  field  of  family  welfare.  Educational  authorities 
have  examined  the  physical  condition  of  the  children 
in  the  schools  and  found  it  very  unsatisfactory.  Defec- 
tive eyesight  which  glasses  might  correct ;  adenoids  and 
enlarged  tonsils  which  should  be  removed;  imperfect 
hearing,  curvature  of  the  spine,  fiat-foot,  and  similar 
ailments,  often  easily  curable,  to  say  nothing  of  unclean 
teeth,  scalp,  and  other  parts  of  the  body,  obviously  re- 
quire attention  as  a  part  of  any  complete  educational 
system.  But  in  such  respects  children  cannot  be  saved 
independently  of  their  parents  and  relatives.  Home 
visiting  from  the  schools  thus  leads  directly  into  every 
aspect  of  family  welfare.  The  cause  of  the  child's 
neglect  may  be  mental  defect  in  the  mother,  a  lack  of 
earning  capacity  in  the  father,  low  sanitary  standards 
in  both,  low  neighborhood  standards  in  general,  or, 
farther  back,  it  may  lie  in  part  in  the  greed  of  land- 
lords, or  the  dishonesty  of  sanitary  food  inspectors,  in 
an  inadequate  water  supply,  or  in  low  wages,  long 
hours,  waste  and  incompetent  management  of  the 
industries  in  which  the  parents  are  employed.  Home 
inspection  and  instruction  originating  in  a  health  depart- 
ment instead  of  a  public  school  system  ultimately,  of 


324  Social  Work 

course,  runs  across  exactly  the  same  phenomena  and 
the  same  bewildering  complex  of  causes,  personal, 
social,  and  economic. 

EXPANSION   OF   STATE   ACTIVITY 

Inspired  by  the  beneficent  results  of  health  inspec- 
tion and  home  teaching  by  physicians,  sanitary  officers, 
nurses,  and  social  workers — whether  from  a  depart- 
ment of  education  or  a  health  department,  and  by 
similar  work  done  by  what  is  sometimes  called  a  de- 
partment of  public  welfare,  county  or  municipal,  we  are 
thus  fairly  compelled  to  consider  whether  general  social 
work  in  the  family  should  not  fall  upon  the  state,  rather 
than  upon  voluntary  agencies,  whether  religious  or 
patriotic  or  charitable — that  is  to  say,  of  course,  as 
far  as  it  is  not  successfully  attended  to  by  the  family 
itself  or  by  some  one  who  recognizes  a  personal  obliga- 
tion to  do  what  is  necessary  and  can  meet  it. 

In  the  past  there  has  been,  as  in  many  places  there 
still  is,  considerable  friction  between  official  and  volun- 
tary agencies,  which  has  made  difficult  a  candid  and 
open-minded  discussion  of  this  subject.  Motives  on 
both  sides  have  been  misrepresented.  On  both  sides 
there  has  been  unfortunate  dogmatism.  Voluntary 
social  agencies  have  shown  a  self -righteousness,  an 
aversion  to  "politics,"  an  assumption  of  superior  motive, 
which  hard-working  and  conscientious  public  officials 
find  very  trying.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  those 
who  are  in  the  public   service,   in  their  contempt  of 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  325 

amateurs,  their  persistent  neglect  of  sound  principles, 
their  arbitrariness  and  lack  of  a  co-operative  spirit, 
often  become  an  easy  mark  for  criticism.  Enlightened 
opinion  at  present  strives  to  counteract  both  these  faults, 
and  assumes  that  both  public  social  service  and  volun- 
tary service  are  needed,  and  that  the  main  problem  is 
to  find  a  modus  vivcndi,  a  rational  division  of  work 
which  will  promote  a  mutual  understanding  and  a 
socially  beneficial  co-operation. 

While  this  assumption  is  sound,  the  question  arises 
whether  the  division  of  work  should  not  be  cjuite  differ- 
ent from  what  is  ordinarily  found,  and  yet  one  for 
which  we  already  have  abundant  precedent.  If  the 
voluntary  agencies,  instead  of  trying  at  great  expense 
to  carry  mdefinitely  a  large  part  of  the  relief  burden, 
would  confine  their  activities  largely  to  the  field  of 
experiment,  retaining  only  so  much  of  the  responsibility 
for  actual  case-work  as  is  necessary  for  experiment 
and  for  the  training  of  workers,  they  might  do  this 
kind  of  work  far  more  thoroughly  than  it  is  now 
done,  and  might  by  fixing  responsibility  clearly  on  the 
appropriate  public  agencies  increase  also  their  efficiency 
and  indirectly  contribute  to  the  enlargement  of  their 
revenues. 

THE    PRINCIPLE    THAT    THE    STATE    SHOULD    BEAR    THE 

BURDEN 

The  support  of  the  aged  and  infirm,  the  care  of  the 
sick,  both  chronic  and  acute,  and  of  the  insane  and 


326  Social  Work 

feeble-minded,  the  maintenance  of  orphans  and  of 
children  whose  parents  cannot  support  them,  the  pro- 
vision of  an  income  for  widowed  or  deserted  mothers 
and  for  those  whose  husbands  are  disabled,  and  all 
similar  well  recognized  relief  burdens,  already  fall, 
to  a  large  extent,  upon  the  tax-payers.  ]\Iight  it  not 
be  sound  public  policy  to  place  the  whole  of  it  there 
in  principle,  always  recognizing  that  it  belongs  in  the 
first  instance  upon  the  family  of  the  individual  afflicted, 
if  the  resources  of  the  family  are  sufficient  to  meet 
the  burden,  and  that  near  relatives  and  friends  are 
always  to  be  permitted  and  expected  to  come  next  in 
succession?  It  is  when  these  immediate  personal  re- 
sources fail,  and  a  social  as  distinct  from  an  individual 
or  family  problem  arises,  that  the  choice  which  we  are 
now  discussing  fairly  occurs.  If  it  be  accepted  as  de- 
sirable that  we  should  have  something  like  a  national 
system,  uniform  in  its  broader  outlines,  and  adapted  to 
local  needs  and  traditions  in  its  details,  adequately 
financed,  authoritative,  democratic,  generous,  and  flexi- 
ble, it  is  to  the  state  that  we  shall  have  to  look  for 
the  performance  of  the  task.  That  politics  may  be 
corrupt  or  bureaucratic,  clumsy,  and  inefficient,  is  not 
a  fatal  objection.  The  public  service  must,  in  reference 
to  social  welfare,  as  we  already  recognize  in  reference 
to  education  and  public  health,  two  of  its  main  sub- 
divisions, be  kept  uncorrupted  and  incorruptible;  free 
from  the  recognizable  and  preventable  evils  of  bureau- 
cracy and  routine.     An  enlightened  and  alert  public 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  327 

opinion,  operating  it  may  be  in  part  through  vokintary 
agencies  created  for  this  very  purpose,  Hke  the  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  State  Charities  Aid  Associa- 
tions, the  Pennsylvania  State  Charities  Association, 
the  housing  associations  or  committees  in  various  cities, 
the  child  labor  committees,  the  American  Association 
for  Labor  Legislation,  the  consumers'  leagues,  the 
tuberculosis  associations,  the  public  health  associations, 
and  various  other  bodies  which  exist  not  to  help  indi- 
viduals, except  incidentally  and  as  object  lessons,  but 
to  bring  organized  pressure  of  public  opinion  to  bear 
upon  legislatures  and  executives,  and  even  upon  courts, 
to  ensure  that  the  necessary  institutions  are  provided, 
the  appropriate  protective  measures  undertaken,  the 
relief   required  by   individuals   forthcoming. 

THE  RELIGIOUS   PROBLEM 

If  this  fundamental  idea  should  be  accepted,  there 
are  many  problems  arising  in  its  application  which 
would  require  careful  consideration.  For  example, 
there  is  the  question  of  religious  education  for  de- 
pendent children.  The  American  principle  of  religious 
liberty,  and  its  corollary,  the  separation  of  church  and 
state,  do  not  involve  indifference  to  religion.  Quite 
the  contrary.  Within  its  own  sphere  the  churches  are 
to  be  as  free  from  political  interference  as  the  state 
is  free  in  its  sphere  from  ecclesiastical  dictation.  But 
child  welfare,  whether  in  institutions  or  in  foster  homes, 
the  relief  and  consolation  of  the  sick  and  the  afflicted, 


328  Social  Work 

the  re-establishment  of  broken  families,  the  reclama- 
tion of  the  wayward,  and  many  similar  tasks,  require 
religious  and  moral  elements,  as  well  as  the  financial 
resources,   the   authoritative   control,   the  trained  and 
expert  service,  which  the  state  may  be  in  position  to 
give.     Even  in  general  elementary  education,  although 
the  existing  non-sectarian  school  is  as  firmly  established 
in  our  American  social  system  as  any  institution  could 
well  be,  there  is  nevertheless  lacking  an  element  which 
we  may  find  some  way  of  introducing  without  sur- 
rendering its  fundamental  principle.     The  Gary  Sys- 
tem has  sought  to  provide  for  religious  instruction  by 
setting  apart  a  certain  period  for  this  purpose  in  the 
day's  curriculum,   which  the  churches  are  invited  to 
supply,  each  child  going  to  the  place  designated  by  his 
parents  or  guardians   for   suitable  instruction   during 
that   period.      When   children   have   to   be    cared    for 
outside  their  own  homes,  the  need  for  some  systematic 
provision  for  moral  and  religious  training  as  a  part 
of  the  public  care  becomes  imperative.     In  the  past 
this   has  been  met  in  part  by  voluntarily   supported 
asylums  for  children  under  religious  auspices,  or  by 
privately   conducted  institutions   supported  wholly  or 
in  part  by  subsidies  or  by  per  capita  payments  from 
the  public  treasury.     When  the  child  is  placed  directly 
in  a  boarding  or  free  foster  home  this  need  is  met 
by  the  stipulation,  sometimes  in  the  law  and  sometimes 
only  in  the  general  understanding,  that  a  family  shall 
be  selected  of  the  same  religious  faith  as  that  of  the 


Tlie  Future  of  Social  Work  329 

child  or  its  parents.  On  some  plan,  which  could  be 
worked  out  only  in  conference  with  authorized  repre- 
sentatives of  the  various  religious  faiths,  this  principle 
of  preserving  the  natural  religious  birthright  of  children 
and  adolescents,  and  of  securing  even  for  adults  the 
■instruction  and  consolations  of  the  religion  of  their 
choice,  would  have  to  be  respected.  Without  sacrificing 
the  American  non-sectarian  principle,  it  might  be  prac- 
ticable to  place  the  laboratories  and  trade  school  equip- 
ment of  the  public  school  system  at  the  free  disposal  of 
parochial  or  other  private  schools  in  which  acceptable 
standards  are  maintained.  Such  equipment  is  costly, 
and  its  use  by  certified  schools  maintained  at  private 
expense  would  no  more  violate  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  American  free  non-sectarian  education  than 
does  the  use  of  assembly  halls  and  playgrounds  for 
the  common  benefit  of  the  community. 

The  maintenance  from  public  funds  of  privately 
owned  and  managed  institutions  is  unsound  in  principle, 
and  at  best  a  temporary  compromise  in  practice.  No 
permanent  national  system  will  ever  be  created  on  such 
a  basis  of  support  from  one  source  and  control  by 
another.  Public  monies  should  be  expended  by  public 
officials,  chosen  by  the  people  or  their  elected  repre- 
sentatives. 

Institutions  for  the  care  of  children  who  are  entirely 
dependent  upon  public  support  and  institutions  for  the 
education  and  training  of  other  children  raise  identi- 
cal questions  of  fundamental  principle.     Both  should 


330  Social  Work 

be  entirely  managed  and  controlled  by  public  servants 
rather  than  private  employees,  but  both  should  give 
an  opportunity  for  a  genuinely  religious  and  moral 
training,  according  to  parental  choice. 

PRESENT    TENDENCIES 

Whether  the  voluntary  agencies  accept  some  such 
division  of  work  as  that  suggested  above,  or  continue 
to  compete  with  one  another  and  with  the  public  relief 
agencies,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  expansion  of  public 
relief  will  continue.  Its  development  in  the  recent  past 
has  been  phenomenal.  The  insane,  feeble-minded, 
epileptic,  and  tuberculous ;  widows  with  dependent  chil- 
dren; families  in  which  the  wage-earner  has  deserted 
or  is  in  prison  or  is  disabled;  disabled  veterans  of  the 
war;  industrial  cripples;  the  aged  infirm;  the  un- 
employed; are  all  increasingly  establishing  their 
claim  on  the  sympathy  of  the  government,  state 
or  national.  Their  needs  are  not  alike,  but  they 
are  alike  entitled  to  social  consideration.  The  state 
or  the  nation  is  creating  services,  one  after  another,  to 
meet  each  of  these  and  other  emerging  or  recognized 
demands.  Voluntary  agencies  are  encouraged  to  do 
what  they  can,  but  the  sense  of  public  responsibility  is 
steadily  rising  to  provide  ofHcially  the  minimum  stan- 
dard of  relief  and  protection. 

THE  AMERICAN    IDEAL 

It  has  frequently  been  said  that  the  ultimate  object 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  331 

of  all  social  work  is  to  make  social  work  unnecessary. 
This  is  true,  and  it  is  the  most  important  ideal  for 
social  workers  to  keep  in  mind.  Every  form  of  social 
work  is  a  criticism  of  one  or  more  of  the  great  funda- 
mental institutions  of  society — the  family,  the  school, 
industry,  the  courts,  the  press,  the  government.  It  is 
no  part  of  our  American  ideal  that  there  should  be 
forever  groups  of  the  population  who  are  so  handi- 
capped by  one  thing  or  another  that  they  are  not  able 
to  bear  a  normal  part  in  the  community  or  to  live  their 
own  lives  without  special  assistance;  and  that  there 
should  be  a  special  profession  made  up  of  men  and 
women  whose  business  it  is  to  guide  and  direct  these 
unfortunates  and  incompetents.  The  ideal  would  be 
pure  milk  without  a  milk  committee,  protected  child- 
hood without  societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty 
and  child  labor  committees,  recreation  without  a  play- 
ground association,  rational  charity  and  family  welfare 
without  a  family  welfare  bureau  or  a  charity  organiza- 
tion society,  justice  to  the  poor  without  a  legal  aid 
society,  social  religion  without  a  social  service  commis- 
sion in  the  churches,  industrial  democracy  evolved  from 
industry  itself — in  short,  communities  in  which  each 
individual,  in  an  enlightened  way,  works  hard  to  ad- 
vance the  interests  of  himself  and  his  family;  in  which 
each  natural  group  works  together,  in  a  social  spirit, 
to  advance  its  own  interests;  in  which  all  citizens  con- 
cern themselves  intelligently  and  actively  in  the  conduct 
of  the  public  business ;  in  which  investors  and  workers 


332  Social  Work 

alike  interest  themselves  in  all  aspects  of  their  joint 
enterprise;  in  which  the  schools  teach  all  children  to 
be  efficient  and  to  use  their  income  to  the  best  advantage 
and  to  enjoy  what  it  will  buy;  in  which  the  newspapers 
compel  attention  to  events  of  genuine  social  importance; 
in  which  the  churches  provide  moral  training  and  the 
support  of  religion  for  all;  in  which  all  the  natural 
bonds  existing  in  human  society  are  strengthened  and 
enriched,  instead  of  being  relaxed  and  sundered  by 
overwork,  by  overstrain,  by  overcrowding,  by  foolish 
kindness,  by  social  temptations ;  in  which  new  situations 
are  faced  habitually  by  the  citizenship  working  through 
familiar  institutions;  in  which  every  profession  and 
craft  has  a  sturdy  pride  in  solving  the  problems  it 
creates — solving  them  preferably  without  the  enact- 
ment of  new  criminal  statutes,  but  always  ready  to 
apply  coercive  measures  and  heroic  remedies  if  in  the 
last  analysis  they  are  unavoidable. 

This  ideal  is,  to  be  sure,  a  long  way  off,  and  it  will 
recede  as  we  approach  it — as  new  knowledge  provides 
new  tools  and  suggests  new  methods;  as  increasing 
sensitiveness  reveals  suffering  of  which  hitherto  we  had 
been  unconscious;  as  rising  standards  of  decency  find 
intolerable  what  has  hitherto  been  endured  with  indif- 
ference; as  successful  accomplishment  of  first  steps 
inspires  courage  and  ambition  to  go  on.  As  long  as 
there  are  individuals  in  need  of  aid  and  comfort  which 
their  immediate  relatives  and  friends  cannot  give;  as 
long  as  there  are  obstacles  and  injustice  hampering 


The  Future  of  Social  Work  333 

individual  progress  which  can  be  removed  only  by  con- 
certed action;  as  long  as  there  are  gaps  between  the 
intentions  ^f  our  established  institutions  and  their 
accomplishments,  between  what  we  know  and  what  we 
do,  what  a  few  know  and  what  the  many  know,  what 
all  would  like  to  do  and  what  with  their  resources  and 
under  their  limitations  they  can  do — so  long  will  there 
be  need  for  social  work. 

That  is  to  say,  it  will  be  needed  as  long  as  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  human  progress.  But  the  particular 
agencies  which  do  the  social  work  of  to-day  will  give 
place  to  others,  the  particular  methods  in  use  will 
become  obsolete,  and  the  better  they  are  the  faster  this 
will  happen.  It  is  desirable  that  this  should  be  so, 
and  it  is  desirable  that  as  fast  as  possible  the  tasks 
of  social  work  should  either  become  unnecessary, 
through  the  correction  of  the  abuses  which  have  created 
them,  or  should  be  assumed  by  those  on  whose  behalf 
they  are  undertaken  or  by  the  entire  body  of  citizens. 

It  is  only  by  realizing  the  place  of  social  work  in 
relation  to  the  rest  of  our  social  economy,  by  keeping 
in  mind  the  ideal  of  a  community  in  which  social  work 
shall  have  a  very  inconspicuous  place,  and  by  demand- 
ing of  every  social  agency  that  it  shall  work  for  its 
own  extinction,  that  the  social  work  of  to-day  can 
accomplish  what  it  has  undertaken.  And  it  is  by 
reason  of  this  Intimate  relation  to  all  the  permanent 
features  of  our  social  and  economic  life,  with  the  de- 
mand this  makes  for  wisdom  and  for  knowledge  of 


334  Social  Work 

every  kind  and  the  stimulus  that  comes  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  working  in  harmony  with  social  prog- 
ress— it  is  by  reason  of  this  dynamic  quality  that  social 
work  deserves  the  serious  attention  of  all  men  and 
women  who  from  any  angle  are  interested  in  the 
common  welfare. 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Abandoned   infants,  sec   Children 

"Abuse  of  medical  charity"  147 

-Accounting    methods    in    social    agencies,    Improvement    in,    296 

Addams,  Jane  28,  231 

Administration  of  the  criminal  laws  190 

Administrative  expenses  of  relief  societies  206 

Adoption,  of   children   118 

Adults,  dependent  Chapter  vii 

Aged  poor  3,  71,  83,  99-108 

Almshouses   15,   29,   73,  99-104 

America : 

Individualism  in  7 

Favorable  conditions    7,    31 

General   prosperity    8 

Persistence  of  misery  8 

Economic    ideals    32 

Religious   ideals  33 

Social  ideals  ,      35 

Political    ideals    37 

Distinguishing   characteristics   of  ^social    work   in 38-43 

American   Association    for  Labor   Legislation    241,   3Z7 

American  Association  for  Organizing  Family  Social  Work 

253-4,  259,  317 

American  Child  Hygiene  Association  259 

American   Federation  of  Labor   170 

American  ideal  of  social  organization   330 

American  Industrial  Lenders  Association  215 

American   Legion   177 

American    Public    Health   Association    227 

American  Red  Cross  VI,  65,  72,  96,  218,  228,  248,  292,  318 

American    Social   Hygiene    Association    223 

American    Social    Science   Association   261 

American  social  work,   Distinguishing  characteristics  38-43 

American   Social   Work   in   the   Tzventieth   Century   309f.n. 

American  Society  for  the  Control  of  Cancer  225 

American   standard   of   living   57-61 

Angell,    James    R 303f.n. 

Anti-nicotine  movement,  checked  by  the  war  244 

Anti-Saloon  League  - 208 

Appeals  for  funds  287,  288,  289 

Appropriations  for  social  work  from  public  funds 265,  266-275 

335 


336  Index 

PAGE 

Associated  charities  252 

Associated  Charities  of  Boston,  The  48,  92 

Association   for  Improving  the   Condition  of   the  Poor,  the 

New  York  251,  254 

Association  for  the  Prevention  and  ReHef  of  Heart  Disease    227 

Bastardy  court  181 

Baths 78 

in   public   lodging   houses    109 

Bedford  Reformatory   274 

Bellevue  and  Allied  Hospitals  *...     139 

Bequests,   sec   Endowments 

"Big  Brothers"   182 

Birth   registration   222 

Blind,   The   3 

Needs  of   151,  161 

in  almshouses  and  homes  for  the  aged  153 

Provision    for I55ff. 

Commissions    for    158 

Blindness 223 

Congenital  152 

Prevention  of  152,  161 

Bonuses    for   ex-service   men    222 

Boston  Council  of  Social  Agencies  257,  258 

Boston  Permanent   Charity  232 

Boston  School  for  Social  Workers  16f.n. 

Boy  Scouts  78 

Brandt,    Lilian    286f.n,    309f.n. 

Brent,   Bishop   Charles   Henry   205 

Bridgman,  Laura  158 

Budget  committee  of  a  financial  federation  293-5 

Budgets,  Family  47 ff. 

Budgets  of   social   agencies   293-5 

Buffalo,   Church  district  plan   in  319 

Building,  Tendency  to  economies  in  297 

Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  254 

Burleson,  Albert  S ' 177,  179 

Campaign    organization   of    a.  financial    federation 295-6 

Campaigns  for  funds  289-292,  295-6 

Camp   Fire   Girls   78 

Cancer,  Control  of  76,  225 

Care  of  individuals 

2,  3,  20,  22,  Chapters  VI-XH,  204-6,  249,  250,  311-2 

Carnegie  Corporation  244 

Carnegie  Foundation  232,  298,  299 


Index  337 

PAGE 

Case  conference   252 

Case-work  66,  311-2,  Chapters  VI-XII  passim 

"Second-story"    205 

Preventive  205 

Causes  of  misery  14,  76ff.,  264 

Censorship  of   motion  picture  films   , 235-6 

Census,  Federal,  Classification  of  social  work  68 

Centenary  Fund  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  290-1 

'  Chalmers,  Thomas  94 

Chambers  of  Commerce  < 211,  254,  259 

Changing  character  of  American  social  work  41 

Chapin,  Robert  Coit  50 

Character  of  American    Social  Work Chapter   III 

Charity   balls   266 

Charity     Organization    Department     of     the     Russell     Sage 

Foundation    317 

Charity   organization   movement   92,   248,   251-4 

Charity  organization  societies  72,  251-4 

Charity  Organization   Society  of  New  York,  The  VI,  254 

Chattel   mortgage   loans    212ff. 

Chicago  Community  Trust  232 

Chicago  Council  of   Social  Agencies   258 

Child   Health   Organization   259 

Child  labor  77,  238-240 

Child  welfare  311 

Bureaus   of    72 

Child  welfare  allowances  .^ 123-7 

Child  Welfare  Standards,  of  the  federal  Children's  Bureau 

114,    115,    116,    118,    121,    125,    222,   239 

Childhood,  Rights  of  114 

Children  Chapter  VIII 

Children,  Dependent  3,  71,  72,  83,  Chapter  VIII,  327-9 

Children : 

Naturally  dependent  „ Ill 

Responsibility   for  their   welfare   .; 112-4 

Foster  homes  for  116fF. 

Institutions    for  .*. 119flF. 

Support   of    273-5 

Religious    education    in    327-9 

Children's  aid  societies  116 

Children's  Bureau,  The  125f.n.,  222,  239 

Conferences  of  222,  239 

see  also  Child  Welfare  Standards 

Children's  Village  202 

Christmas  Seals  292 

Church,  The,  and  social  work  231-2,  319ff. 


338  Index 


PAGE 

Church  district  plan  in  Buffalo  319 

Churches,  Institutional  230,  231-2,  321 

Churches,  Social  creed  of  the  a 291 

Churches  and  social  work  63,  204,  231-2,  319ff. 

Use   of   volunteers    93 

Homes  for  the  aged  supported  by  churches  104 

Homes  for  children  119 

As   general    relief   agencies   319ff. 

Cincinnati,   Financial   federation   in  293 

Cincinnati   Council   of   Social  Agencies   258 

Cities,  Re-planning  of  212,  237,  245 

Classifications  of  Social  Work  Chapter  V,  311-2 

Cleveland,  Financial  federation  in  292,  293 

Cleveland   Foundation   232 

Clientage  97 

Clinics  and  dispensaries  15,  74,  146,  147 

Clothing,  in  the  American  standard  of  living 55 

Clubs 78,   204 

College  and  university  training  for  social  work  299ff. 

Colony,  for  unimprovable  offenders  187 

Columbia  University  VI,  48,  50 

Columbus  Council  of  Social  Agencies  258 

Commissions   and   legislative   committees   202 

Commitments  to  children's   institutions  123,  282-3 

Committees  and  associations  for  improving  living  and  work- 
ing conditions  16,  Chapters  XIII-XIV 

Community  chests  and  community  funds,  see  Financial  federations 

Community  conscience  and  civic  memory  254 

Community  foundations  and  community  trusts  232,  265 

Community  Organization,  by  Joseph  K.  Hart  255f.n. 

Community  Organization  56,  245 

"Community    service"    78 

Community    Service    (Incorporated)    259 

Compensation : 

for  occupational   injuries   153,  241-2 

to   disabled   soldiers 163 

Conferences  of  social  workers,  National,  state,  and  local 261-2 

Confusion  and  duplication  among  social  agencies  258-261 

Congestion  of  population  77,  234,  244 

Consumers'  leagues   16,  240,  327 

Contributions  for  social  work  265,  286-296 

Control,   Boards  of   263 

Cooperation  in  social  movements  248 

see  Coordination 

Coordination  and  Supervision   Chapter  XV 

Correctional    institutions   74,    196-203 


Index  339 

PAGE 

Councils  of  social  agencies  ^57-8 

Country  life,  Movement  for  improving  245 

County  officials,  Lack  of  public  interest  in  102,  199-201 

Courses  in  social  work  301fF.,   304 

Courts    74 

and  child  welfare  113 

Crime  and  the  Courts  Chapter  XI 

Criminal    175 

Respect  for  175 

Special  position  in  America  - 180 

Tendencies  in  court  decisions  181 

Specialization  of 181 

Practice  of  the  courts  in  fixing  fines  194 

Crime  V,  8,  19,  20,  42,  69,  75,  230,  233,  312,  Chapters  XI-XII 

and  mental  defect  166-7 

Crime  and  the  Courts  Chapter  XI 

Definition  of  171,  174 

Influences  tending  to  increase  172 

at  the  close  of  the  war  173 

"Crime  wave" 173 

Crimes,  Classification  of  185 

Criminal  courts  175 

Criminality,    Nature   of    172 

Criminals  3,  8, 

Treatment  of  70,  74,  Chapters  XI-XII,  311 

An   ideal    plan   - 186-7 

Female   183 

Cripples  3,  155 

Needs  of  155,  157 

Provision    for    157ff. 

Cruelty  to  children,  Societies  for  the  prevention  of 115 

Dance  halls 235 

Day  nurseries  127-8 

Deaf,   The    154 

Needs  of  154 

Provision   for  156 

Deafness,  Prevention  of  ~ 154 

Death    penalty    187-8 

Death-rates   228 

Defectives,  IMental  3,  73,  165-7 

Needs  of 165 

Inadequate  provision   for  166 

Delinquency,  sec  Crime,  Criminals,  Juvenile  Delinquency 
Denver,   Financial   federation    in    292 


340  Index 

PAGE 

Departments  of  public  welfare,  or  social  welfare,  see  Public 

Welfare   Departments 

Dependence  and  mental  defect  ., 166-7 

Dependent  Adults Chapter  VII,  311 

Dependent  children,  see  Children 

Detention       laboratory       for      observation       of       convicted 

offenders  186,  203 

Detroit,   Financial    federation   in   293 

Directors  of  social  agencies   286-7 

Disarmament  245,  270 

Discrimination    in   giving 287-8 

Disease  V,  8,  19,  20,  42,  69,  7Z,  75,  204,  230,  233 

Prevention   of   216-229,   311-2 

Disorderly    conduct    » 185 

District  committee  252 

Diet  in  the  American  standard  of  living  59 

Disabled  soldiers.  Provision  for 155,  159,  162-4 

Disasters,    Relief    in    95 

Dispensaries  and  clinics  15,  74,  146,  147 

Division  of  responsibility  between  voluntary  social  agencies 

and  the  state  , 322-327,  330 

Domestic  relations,  or  family,  court  181,   191 

Drives   for   funds   289-292 

Earnings  of  social  agencies  265,  281-5 

Economic  dependence  the  primary  social  problem.. ..70ff.,  85ff.,  98 

Economic  ideals  in  the  United  States  32 

Education  in  childhood  as  a  preventive  of  crime  / 188-9 

Education  of  the  public  66,  67,  216,  217,  296 

Educational  social  movements  Chapters  XIII-XIV,  311-2 

Common   features  of  245-8 

Eight-hour  day  in  the  American  standard  of   living 59 

Elberfeld    system 251 

Elmira   Reformatory    201 

Endowments  and  bequests  232,  265,  275-280 

Expert   service    undervalued    272 

Extravagance  in  building  297 

Families   Chapter  VI 

Family,    The:      Normal    function   of    78 

Destructive    influences  ' • 81 

Responsibility  for  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  children     112 

Family  budgets   47ff.,   92 

Family,  or  domestic  relations,  court  181,  191 

Family  social  work  7Z,  81-95,  253-6,  311,  317ff. 

"Family    societies"    72 

Family    welfare,    see   Family    social    work 


Index  341 

PAGE 

Federal    Council   of    Churches    291 

Federal  department  of  public  welfare,  Proposal  for 233 

Federations  of  social  agencies  248,  257-8,  260-1,  292-6 

Feeble-minded,  The,  sec  Defectives,  Mental 

Felonies    185 

Female   offender.   The    183-4 

Filiation  court  181 

Finances   Chapters   XVI-XVII 

Financial  federations  of  social  agencies  248,  257,  260-1,  292-6 

Financial  methods  and  policies  of  social  agencies  296-7 

Financial  secretary  in  social  agencies  289 

Fines 193-5 

Fiscal  supervisor  264 

Folks,   Homer    48,   49 

Foster  homes    for  children   116ff. 

Foundations,   Philanthropic  230,  232,  246 

Foundlings,  see  Children 

Freedom  of  the  individual  in  modern  times  6 

Freedom   of    voluntary   initiative   in   social   work 315-6 

Fresh-air  agencies  129-130 

Fry,  Elizabeth  28 

Function  of  social  work  10-12,  22 

Fundamentals  of  social  work  301ff. 

Funds  for  the  support  of  social  work,  see  Finances 

Future  of  Social  Work,  The,  98,  Chapter  XIX 

Gary  system  328 

Giddings,   Franklin   H 302f.n. 

Gonorrhea  223 

Government :     Common   services  not    social   work   24 

Purpose  of   • 170 

Governmental  and  voluntary  activities  in  social  work.. ..267-8,  322ff. 

Governmental  social  work  63,  266-8,  322fF. 

Graduate  professional  training  for  social  work  309ff. 

Grand  Rapids,  Financial   federation  in   293 

Guilds  4 

HANDicArpED,  The Chapter  X 

Handicaps,    Physical    ISO 

Mental    164 

Hart,  Joseph   K.,   255 

Hartley,   Robert    M.,   251 

Headquarters  and  staff,  essential  in  any  social  movement 247-8 

Health : 

in  dependent  families  89 

Extension  of   care  more  desirable  than   restriction 148 

Promotion  of  „., 77,  227flf. 


342  Index 

PAGE 

Health  centers  146,  227ff. 

Health  departments  219,  228 

and  child  welfare  113 

Visiting  nurses  maintained  by 147 

Health  ideal  133 

Health  insurance  149 

Heart  disease,   Prevention  of  225-6 

Hill,  Octavia   210 

Historical  backgrounds  of  modern  social  work  306-9 

"Home   and    aid"    societies    116 

Home  care  of  the   sick 146 

Home  service  72,  206,  316 

as  an  alternative  to  institutional  care 82,   120 

Agencies    for   84-5 

Extension  of  96,  317ff. 

Medical    146 

Psychiatric   169 

Main    purpose    preventive 205 

Homeless,    Provision    for   108ff. 

Homes   for  children  119-123 

Homes  for  the  aged  15,  72 

Public  99-104 

Private   104-5 

for   old   soldiers    105 

Hospitals 15,  74,  135-146 

Description  of  a  modern  hospital  13Sff. 

Maintenance   138 

Public  and  private  139 

Support  138,  139ff.,  273-5 

Value 143-6 

for  the  insane   169 

Household  industry   4 

Housing : 

Improvement  of  77,  209-212 

in   the   American   standard   of   living   57 

Housing    movement    209-312 

How  Much  Shall  I  Give,  by  Lilian  Brandt  286f.n. 

Illegitimacy    - 118,    167 

Immigrants   78 

Immigration    ....^ 245 

Impatience   with    poverty   in    America   41 

Imprisonment  as  a  punishment   for  crime....... 196-203 

Improvement   of   living   and   working  conditions 

2,  3,  21,  22,  70,  75,  Chapters  XIII-XIV,  311-2 


Index  343 

PAGE 

Income,  Insufficient  85ff.,  220 

Income  requirements  of  the  American  standard  of  living 60 

Indians    78,    236 

Individual  freedom  and   responsibility  4,  6 

Individualism    in   America   7,  32 

Individuals,    Care  of 

2,  3,  20,  22,  Chapters  VI-XII,  204-6,  249,  250,  311-2 

Inductive   Sociology,   by   Franklin    H.    Giddings 302f.n. 

Industrial   relations,  Court  of   181,    182 

Industrial     revolution 5 

Industry,    Household    4 

Industry  : 

Reorganization  of   237-8 

and   social    work  242-4 

Constitutional    government    in    245 

Infant  mortality,  Reduction  of  76,  219-222 

Insane,   The  3,    165 

Provision   for  15,   168-9,  203 

Insanity    167-9 

Distinguished    from    mental    defect    165 

Influences   tending   to  increase  167 

Progress  in  treatment  167 

Inspection  by  official  boards  263,  264 

Institution  or  home  service  82-4 

Institutional  care : 

Advantages    and    disadvantages    /  82ff. 

for  the   aged    106ff. 

for    children    ,...119ff. 

Alternatives    to   119 

for  the   sick  ...135-146 

Institutional    churches    230,    231-2 

Institutions    66,   67 

Productive  occupations  in  283-5 

Earnings   of 281-5 

Tendency  to  less  extravagant  construction  296-7 

see   also   Institutional  care 

Instruction  in  social  work  301,  303fF. 

Insurance,    Social    85-6,    106,    126-7,    149 

Interchurch   World   Movement  291 

International  Labor  Bureau  of  the  League  of  Nations -4Sf.n. 

International  Labor  Conference  241 

Introduction   to   Economics,   by    Henry    R.    Seager 302f.n. 

Investigation  of  social  problems  245-7 

Investment,    Public-spirited    2\2ff.,    216 

"Iowa  plan"   255-6 


344  Index 

PAGE 

Jails    74,    186,    197-201 

Joint  budgeting  by  social  agencies  293-5 

Joint    Legislative    Committee    of    the    State    of    New    York 

Investigating    Seditious   Activities    179 

Justice   to   the  Poor  i. 244 

Juvenile  court  181,  182-3,  191 

Juvenile  delinquency  172,  236 

see  also  Juvenile  court 

Keller,  Helen  158 

Landis,   Judge   K.    M.,   194 

Lawr-abiding   spirit  170 

Conditions  essential  to 176,  179,  189 

Cultivation  of,  in  childhood  188-9 

Law-breaking  spirit  171 

Laws,  Character  and  administration  of  189-190 

Legal   aid  movement  244 

Legislation  for  control  of  exploitation  216 

Legislative  committee  202 

Le   Play,    F. 47 

Literature  of  social  work  246-7,  262 

Living  conditions,  see  Improvement  of   living  and  working 
conditions 

"Loan  sharks"  212,  214 

Loans  on   furniture,   salaries,  etc j 212-6 

Lock-up,  see  Jail 

Lockwood    Committee  194 

Lodging  houses   108-110 

Louisville,  Financial   federation  in  293 

Lusk,  C.  R 179 

McConnell,  Bishop  F.  J 291 

Martial,  quoted 98 

Massachusetts   Bureau   of    Labor    Statistics    48f.n. 

Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Charities  261 

Material  relief  93-5 

Maternity    aid   222,    267,    268 

Meeker,  Royal  S -. 48f.n. 

Membership  in  social  agencies 286 

^Mental  defect,  distinguished  from  insanity ^     165 

]^,[ental    defectives    3,    73,    165-7 

Mental    disability    164 

Mental  examinations,  in  social  work  for  families  89 

Mental  hygiene  movement  244 

Merchant   Alarine   Hospital   Service  138 


Index  345 

PACE 

Methodist  Federation  for  Social   Service  291 

Minimum   wage   laws    240 

Minneapolis    Council  of    Social   Agencies   258 

Misdemeanors   1S5 

Missions  15,  108 

Mitchell,  John   53 

Modern   Health    Crusade   259 

Monfs  dc   Piete   213 

"Mothers'  pensions"  123-7 

Motion    picture    censorship    235-6 

Motives  for  supporting  social  work  266,  267,  287 

Mountain    whites    236 

Municipal   research.   Bureau  of   254 

Mutual  benefit  associations,  not  social  work  26 

National  Catholic  Welfare  Council  292 

National    Child    Labor    Committee    238,    239,    259,    260 

National    Child  Welfare  Association 259 

National    Conference   of    Social   Work    (formerly    Charities 

and   Correction)    16,   42,  261-2,   263 

National  Consumers  League  240 

National  Federation  of   Remedial  Loan  Associations 215 

National  financial   federation,   Proposal  for  260-1 

National  Housing  Association  211 

National    Information    Bureau    259 

National   Public   Health   Council  260 

National  social  agencies,  Confusion  and  over-lapping 259-261 

National  Tuberculosis  Association  259,  292 

Natural  advantages  of  the  United  States  31 

Natural   dependents   71,    1 1 1 

Neglected    children,    see    Children 

Negroes   78,  236,  237 

New  York  Orphan  Asylum  124 

New  York  School  of  Philanthropy  VI,  16f.n. 

New  York   State    Conference  of    Charities   and    Correction, 

Committee  on  the  Standard  of  Living  48,  49,  50ff. 

Night  court  181,   182 

Night  work  by  women  ;77,  240 

Nomenclature  in  social  work.  Present  tendencies  258-9 

"Non-sectarian"   charity,   conspicuous   in   America  40,   64 

Normal  Life,_  The  - .61f.n. 

Nursing  services  i 74,   147 

Offenders,   Treatment  of    311 

by  warning  190-1 

by  probation  191-3 

by  fine  193-5 


346  Index 

PAGE 
Offenders,    (Cont.) 

by  denial  of  privileges  195 

by   imprisonment   196-202 

An  ideal  plan  186,  202-3 

Official    boards    263-4 

Old  age...... J 5,  9,  99-108 

Pensions    106,    268 

Old  soldiers,  Homes  for  105 

One-day-rest-in-seven   59 

Organized    charity    93 

Organizing  charity.  Societies  for  251-4 

Orphans   and   orphan  asylums,  see  Children 

Out-door  relief 63,  72,   123-7 

and  careless  commitments  to   institutions  123 

Over-work  and  injurious  work  77,  240 

Palmer,  A.  Mitchell  177,  179 

Parental  authority  and  the  state  114 

Parks  and  playgrounds  78 

Parole 74 

Pawnbroking    212ff. 

Payment    of    prisoners    196 

Penalties  for  crime  185ff. 

Penitentiary,  see  Prisons 

Pennsylvania  State  Charities  Association  327 

Pensions : 

for  the  aged  106ff.,  268 

for  mothers  123ff.,  268 

for  disabled   soldiers   I59ff. 

for  the  blind I59ff. 

Periodicals  in  the  field  of  social  work  262 

Philanthropy,    Unorganized    249 

"Philanthropy  and  five  per  cent" 216 

Physical   disability    132 

Physical  examinations : 

in  social  work   for   families 89 

in    public    lodging    houses    109 

Provision   for   free  periodical   149 

Physical    handicaps    150 

Pittsburgh   Survey,  The  48,   54 

Placing  out 72,  116ff. 

Play,  see   Recreation 

Playground  Association  of  America  235 

Playground  movement  234 

Police  force  75,  190 

Police  stations  as  lodging  houses 109 


Index  347 

PAGE 

Political  ideals  in  the  United  States  37 

Politics,    Defects    of    American    local    272 

Population,   General   registration   advocated   198 

Poverty    V,    8,    9,    19,    20 

Relief  of  69,  Chapters  VI-VITI,  311 

Prevention  of 75,  77,  Chapters  XIII-XIV 

Poverty,   disease,   and   crime,    the    fundamental    social    prob- 
lems   V,  19,  20,  42,  69,  75,  204,  230,  233,  31? 

Preparation  for  Social  Work  Chapter  XVIII 

Prevention  of  poverty,  disease,  and  crime 

75ff.,   186,   Chapters   XIII-XIV,  311-2 

Preventive  case-work  205-6 

Preventive  social  work  Chapters  XIII-XIV,  311-2 

Principles  of  Relief  48,  53f.n. 

Principles   of   Sociology,   by   Franklin   H.    Giddings 302f.n. 

Prison  associations  202 

Prison  labor  283-5 

Prisoners,    Payment    of    196 

Prisoners'    aid    societies    202 

Prisons  and  penitentiaries  15,  74,  186,  196fT.,  201ff. 

Supervision    of    263-4 

Private  homes   for  the  aged   104-5 

Private    hospitals    140-1 

Private    philanthropy : 

Relative   predominance   in   America 40,   64-5 

Financial  support  of  265-6,  273-280,  281  ff.,  286-296 

Probation  74,  182,  183,  191-3 

Processes  in  social  work  66,  309 

Professional  training  for  social  work  309fF. 

Progress  and  Social  Work  Chapter  I 

Prohibition,    National    207-8 

Prosperity  in  America  8,  31 

Prostitution  183-4 

Protection,  of  the  poor  88 

of   children   113,    115 

Provident  Loan   Society  of   New  York 213-4 

Psychiatric  clinics  147,  169 

Psychiatric  home   service  169 

Psvchologx,  by  James    R.   Angell 303f.n. 

Public  and  private  enterprise  in  the  tuberculosis  movement....    219 

Public  and  private  relief  267-8,  322fT. 

Public  authorities,   Social   work  by   63 

Support    265-273 

Handicaps    272 

Public  health  code  ^27 

Public  health  movement   219,  227-9 


348  Index 

PAGE 

Public  Health  Service  138,  223 

Public  hospitals  139-143 

Public  lodging  houses  109 

Public  officials,  handicapped  by  lack  of  public  interest 

102,  199-201,  272 

Public  revenues  for  social  work 269-272 

Public   support  of   private  institutions   ....141-3,   329 

Public  Welfare  Departments 93,  228,  230,  232-3 

Publication,  an  essential  feature  of  any  social  movement 246-7 

Publicity  methods  288-292 

Punishment  of   crime    185ff. 

Qualifications  for  social  work  298ff.,  313-4 

Racial  and  social  groups,  Social  work  for  236-7 

Reactionary  tendencies  in  treatment  of   criminals 187 

Recreation  77,  233-6 

Red  Cross,  see  American  Red  Cross 

Red  Cross  Roll  Call  292 

Re-education   and   rehabilitation   of   disabled   soldiers 162 

and  of  disabled  civilians  163 

Reformation  of  offenders   186 

Reformatories  15,  74,  186,  187,  201 

Registration   of    births 222 

Registration  of  population,  advocated  198 

Relief  Administration,  The  96 

Relief  agencies  72,  75,  205 

Relief  in  disasters  95 

Relief,    "Material"    93-5 

Relief   funds  14,  252 

Relief  of  poverty  and  dependence.. ..69,  70ff.,  Chapters  VI-VIII,  311 

Responsibility  of  the  state  for 325ff. 

Agencies  for •       '^ 

their  interest  in  prevention  of  poverty 75,  205 

Religion,  Relation  to  social  work  231-2 

Unique   function    319 

Religious  ideals  in  the  United   States  33 

Religious  origin  of   much   social    work 63 

Religious  problem  in  public  relief  327fF. 

Remedial  loans  212-6,  248 

Re-planning  of  cities  212,  237 

Report  of  work  done  by  social   agencies,  expected  by  con- 
tributors     287-8 

Research,   Social   I' 

Resources  available  for  purposes  of  the  social  welfare 269-272 

Right  to  life.   New  meaning   4>, 


Index  349 

PAGE 

Rights   of   childhood    114 

Riis,  Jacob  A 28 

Rockefeller  Commission  218 

Rockefeller   Foundation    , 232 

Roman  idea  of  the  family  113 

institution  of  clientage  97 

Rural  social  centers  ^  78 

Russell  Sage  Foundation 48,  54f.n.,  214-5,  232,  317 

"Safety-first"  movement  153 

Saint  Louis  Council  of   Social  Agencies 258 

Saint  Vincent  de   Paul   societies   72 

Salaries   in   social   work   297 

Saloon    208-9 

San  Francisco  fire  48 

Sanborn,  F.  B., 261 

School,   The,  and   child  welfare   112 

School  attendance  laws  239 

School  hygiene  147 

Scope  of  Social  Work,  The,  Chapter  II 

Seager,  Henry   R.,  302f.n. 

Secular  or  non-sectarian  charity  64 

Serfage    4 

Settlernents 15,  16,  78,  93,  204,  230-1 

Sex  discrimination   in  treatment  of   prostitution 183-4 

Sex  hygiene  224-5 

Sick,  The,  Chapter  IX 

Sick,  disabled,  and  defective  3,  5,  69,  73,  Chapters  IX-X,  311 

Home  care  146-7 

Slavery  4 

Small   claims   court   181 

Social  agencies.  Councils  and  federations  of 257-8,  292-6 

Social  centers  78 

Social  creed  of  the  churches  291 

Social  economics : 

Definition    1 

relation  to  social  work  1,  3, 

Social  ideals  in  the  United  States 35 

Social  needs,   institutions,   problems,    forces 1 

Social  problems : 

the  unifying  element  in  social  work  19 

definition   20 

as  a  basis  for  the  classification  of  social  work 69,  311-2 

Investigation    of    245-7 

Social  research  245-7 

Social  service  exchange 250,  261 


350  Index 

PAGE 

Social  settlements,  see  Settlements 
Social  work: 

Description  and  definition V,  1,  2-4,  15-30,  esp.  21ff. 

Object  of  3,  92,  271,  298,  301 

Function  10-12 

Character_ 27-30,  Chapter  HI,  204-S',  298,  302 

Its  place  in  the  American  social  economy 330-4 

consult^  also  analysis  given  in  the  Table  of  Contents 

Specialization  of   courts   181 

Advantages  182 

Standard  of  Life,  The,  Chapter  IV 

Standard    of   Living   in   Nezv    York    City,    The,   by    Robert 

Coit   Chapin   54 

Standard  of  living  7,  Chapter  IV 

the  background  of  modern  social  work  in  America.. ..45ff.,  55,  61 

definition    54-6 

The  American   standard   57-61 

Influence  of   55,   71 

Standard  Oil  Company  ^ 194 

Standard  minimum  wage  law  240 

Standards : 

of   child   welfare,   see    Child   Welfare    Standards 

for  women  in  industry  240-1 

for  compensation  laws 241 

State,  The,  and  social  work  322ff. 

Responsibility  of  322,  325ff. 

State  activity  for  social  welfare,  Expansion  of 324 

State  boards  of  charities  233,  263-4 

State  Charities  Aid  Associations,  of  New  York  and  of  New 

Jersey  327 

State  intervention  in  the   family  114 

Stevenson,  Archibald  E.,  179 

Story  of  Social  Work  in  America  » 308f.n. 

Subsidies  to  private  institutions  141-3,  273-5,  239 

Supervision  of  social  agencies  Chapter  XV,  passim 

Supervisory    state    boards    263-4 

Support  of   social   agencies,  see   Finances ;   also  the  various 
types  of  agency 

Survey,  The  262 

Surveys    256-7 

Swimming    pools    78 

Syphilis    223 

Tagging  290 

Taxation 265,    266-272 

Tax-paying    ability    268-272 


Index  351 

PAGE 

Teaching  material  for  courses  in  social  work 304ff. 

Technical  preparation   for  social  work 298,  309ff. 

Technique   in  social   work  67,   205 

Temperance    movement,    The,    206-9 

Temporary    shelter    108-110 

Training  for  social  work  299ff. 

Training    schools    262 

Travellers'    aid    244 

Treatment  for  all  who  need  it.  Importance  of  147-9 

Treatment  of  Criminals  Chapter  XII 

Tuberculosis,  Prevention  of  76,  216-9,  248 

Tucker,  Frank  49 

Unemployment   9,   85-6 

Uniform  Small  Loan  Law  215 

United    charities    252 

United    States,   sec   America 

United  States  Department  of  Labor  240 

United   States  Labor   Bureau  48f.n. 

Unity  in  social  work.  Tendency  toward 42 

University  and  college  training   for  social  work 299ff. 

Variety  in  American  social  work  39 

Venereal  disease,  Prevention  of   76,  223-5 

Village    improvement    societies    78 

Violation  of  local  ordinances  185 

Visiting  nurse  associations   147 

Vital  statistics  228-9 

Vocational  guidance 153,  154,  157,  169,  226 

Voluntary  and  governmental  activities  in  social  work.. ..267-8,  322ff. 
Volunteer  service   92 

Wald,   Lillian   D 231 

War,  Effect  on  treatment  of  criminals  187 

on  financial  methods  of  social  agencies  289ff. 

War  chests    292 

War    psychology    177-9,    231 

Wa'^ning,  Treatment  of  offenders   by   190-1 

Waste,  Prevention  of   270 

Wealth,    Posthumous  use  of   279 

Welfare  Departments,   Public  93,  228,  230,  232-3 

Welfare  Federation  of  Cleveland  260 

Well  Baby  Clinic,  Portland,  Oregon  220 

Whittier    School    202 

Widows'   pensions   123-7,    268 

Wills  and   will-making   275-280 


352  Index 

PAGE 

Woman's  Trade  Union  League  26 

Women  in  industry,  Protection  of  .'. 240-1 

Women's   clubs   211 

Woodvard   109 

Work-house    201 

Working    conditions 237-244,   311-2 

see  also  Improvement  of  Living  and  Working  Conditions 
Wright,   Carroll  D 48f.n. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association  248 


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